Refill stores offer a tangible step, but experts stress reuse has conditions
Refill stores have become a visible part of a broader push to reduce packaging waste, offering customers a practical alternative to single-use bottles and containers. In Tampa, Lufka Refillable Zero Waste illustrates the approach: customers bring reusable containers for products such as soap, shampoo and cleaning supplies, and the store weighs containers before filling them and charges by the amount of product added, according to the store’s reporting.
Customers say the routine is motivating. Julie Hughes, who discovered Lufka two years ago while looking for skincare products and returned regularly, described the act of refilling as something that makes people feel better about the choices they can control. “When you do something positive, you get a little bit of like a dopamine hit and you feel good,” Hughes said on a recent trip to buy liquid hand soap. “There are so many big problems in the world, but we can’t solve all of the big problems, but we do have control over our choices.”
Store operators say some shoppers have stayed with the system for years. Lufka founder Kelly Hawaii said that some shoppers have been refilling the same containers for six years, and she described the impact in terms of waste that those repeat users do not produce.
Still, experts caution that reuse is not automatically better than recycling or other waste-management paths. Shelie Miller, a University of Michigan professor who studies sustainability, said consumers should think of “reduce, reuse, recycle” as a priority order, with reuse generally coming before recycling. Miller also said durable reusable containers typically require more energy and materials to produce, meaning the environmental advantage can depend on whether people reuse them long enough to offset that initial impact—a concept she described as a “payback period.”
Miller’s research looked at the performance of reusable products on multiple environmental measures, including greenhouse gas emissions, water use and energy demand. She and a colleague examined reusable items such as drinking straws, forks and coffee cups and measured payback periods across categories. In the study, Miller said a ceramic coffee mug must be reused between 4 and 32 times before outperforming disposable cups on those measures, with ceramic showing faster paybacks than reusable coffee cups made from metal or plastic.
Transportation and convenience can also affect whether refilling pays off. Miller said that convenience matters because added trips can cancel out reuse benefits. “If you are making dedicated trips just to reduce packaging, it actually can be worse for the environment than if you use the single-use product,” she said.
Reuse fits into circular-economy goals, but barriers remain
Refilling and other reuse systems are, in many ways, a return to earlier distribution models, experts say, even as they are implemented with modern tracking and consumer interfaces. A 2020 study of reusable packaging described how a shift to single-use packaging took hold largely because disposable systems simplified logistics and reduced handling costs for producers and retailers, and it said that transition contributed to an increase in packaging production and waste over time as reuse infrastructure declined.
In recent years, however, reuse has been pulled back into focus as part of what advocates call a “circular economy,” which aims to keep products and materials in use longer to limit waste. The Public Interest Research Group estimates there are hundreds of refillable stores nationwide as part of what it calls a “generation of new businesses” aimed at reducing packaging waste.
The push has also expanded beyond standalone refill stores. Lush Cosmetics sells some products “naked,” without packaging, and offers discounts to customers who return containers from its other products. Another reusable-container platform, Loop, is available in France and partners with major brands such as Nestlé and Coca-Cola to distribute products in durable containers that are collected, cleaned and refilled for reuse.
Even so, reuse remains a small share of the overall market. According to the study discussed in the reporting, barriers to expansion include hygiene requirements and the need for systems to collect and process containers, and those added processing and cleaning costs may make reuse more expensive.
For hard-to-recycle packaging, some programs shift to specialized collection
Some recycling and reuse efforts target categories of packaging that are difficult for standard recycling systems to handle. Large beauty retailers such as Ulta Beauty and Sephora partner with Pact Collective, a nonprofit that collects hard-to-recycle beauty packaging through in-store bins.
Pact Collective’s executive director Carly Snider said the program collects packaging made of mixed materials that regular recycling programs can’t process, as well as small pieces measuring less than 2 inches (5 centimeters). She said items such as pumps, droppers and sample-sized containers often fall through the cracks of machines at recycling facilities. “There’s specific things with beauty packaging that makes it really difficult,” Snider said.
Snider said Pact routes those materials through specialized processing to divert material from landfills. Experts also emphasize that refill and recycling programs are not perfect solutions, but they can help reduce waste when they replace single-use packaging and fit into everyday life. “Small things do add up,” Miller said. “And so when you have millions of people who are all doing small things, that really can make a difference, make a change.”