Less than 6% of plastic waste is recycled, with a majority ending up in landfills, according to a report released in May by environmental groups Last Beach Clean Up and Beyond Plastics.
The ReFill LLC owner Debra Cowdin’s business philosophy is based not on recycling, but on the reuse and refilling of containers and bags used to store household commodities.
The small shop on Spring Street in Newport welcomes both current practitioners and would-be converts.
Customers can arrive with empty or partially empty containers to be weighed and filled with nontoxic and plant-based home goods such as shampoo, soaps, dishwashing liquid, toothpaste and sunscreen. The products are weighed and purchased by the ounce, with most offerings ranging between 30 cents and $4 per ounce.
“It’s depressingly huge the amount of waste many of us became used to,” said Cowdin, a mathematics teacher-turned-entrepreneur who opened The ReFill in June. “In one way, this is part of the solution. It is about building habits. This may not be world-changing, but it is community-changing.”