Shifting the Mindset

Picture this:
You’re running out of household cleaning items, or personal care items. Items such as:

• Shampoo
• Conditioner
• Dish Soap
• Hand Soap
• All Purpose Cleaner
• Toothpaste

What’s the first thing that comes to mind?
“Add it to the shopping list for the week and grab some while I’m shopping anyway”

Stop and ask – What’s wrong with the container?

While some plastics get recycled, perform another function or perhaps the same function it had before, not all of it does. Even when they do end up at a recycling plant, the amount of resources and effort involved to actually recycle is huge, from water usage to man-power and parts in repairing the machinery when it goes down.

So – What can we do differently?

Re-think, Re-Use.

When our containers come to an end, instead of just adding it to the weekly grocery shop and buying yet another container – Re-think – How can I recycle this container myself?

Refilling = Reusing = Recycling.

When we choose to instead re-use a container by refilling it – We’re are doing a number of things.

• Not contributing to unnecessary plastic waste – Whether it’s in our house or on another continent, the world is ours to take care of – Not take advantage of. By reusing the container we’re actually creating a self-recycling plant and it uses less resources.
• Often using better quality products that are made with natural ingredients
• Higher concentrations that last longer – Saving money in the long term

Refilling is a mindset change – For years we’ve been used to consuming containers when we run out of product. There is another way, start to think – “Can I re-use this container instead for something else? Can I re-use it for the same purpose?”

A Living legacy

Plastic takes decades to degrade and most last longer than we’ll be alive. Every future generation after us will still be eating, breathing and living with the containers we’ve thrown away as they degrade into the soils and oceans around us. It doesn’t have to be that way, future generations could see a huge reduction in plastic waste and not because of innovations in recycling (although that’s a step in the right direction) but through the general public re-using, self-recycling and refilling their containers when they run empty.