The Refill Stop is an eco-minded, low-waste refill shop where you can bring your containers from home and refill them with dish, laundry, body soap and all types of cleaners. The Refill Stop is woman-owned and based in New Westminster.
“We make a difference by sourcing products that eliminate single-use plastics, selling refillable, environmentally friendly household and body care products. Already within two years of being open, we have refilled over 20,000 bottles and curbed the use of thousands of items that would end up in landfills after just one use. Over 50% of the products we carry are locally made. Another 20% is manufactured in other areas of Canada, and the rest from everywhere else.”
Question: How are you supporting other local businesses?
Answer: We support many local businesses. We carry many items from local artisans and makers, including, Clarissa Banos, Judy the Crazy Soap Lady Nature Derived Organics: Artisanal Soap, Creative Capricorn, Live For Tomorrow, Unfurl Wellness, Carina Organics, Nellies Clean, Sriracha Revolver hot sauces, Chroma Nostaa Designs jewelry, Karet Designs jewelry, Make Nice Solid Dish Soap, Invito Coffee, and Reusable Bubble Tea Cup to name a few!
We choose our manufacturers always keeping in mind that the closer the product, the less our environmental footprint will be. Over 50% of the items we carry at the store are from British Columbia, 10-15% Canadian, and the rest from anywhere else. We also participate in the circular economy by working with local businesses to help with advertising, social media help, photography, cleaning services, even local pet care, because it’s not just about the shop and what we do centrally, but who we work with outside the shop that keeps us going.
Question: What social and environmental practices are you proud of?
Answer: There are so many, but we are really proud of making reusables in our store accessible. You can bring a container, any container you already have at home and use it to fill your environmentally curated products from our shop. We go beyond recycling as recycling should be one of the last resorts. We also curate environmentally friendly products, products that are plant and mineral-based, river and land safe. Many of our products are super concentrated so that the product they are purchasing are products and not just filled with lots of water. We also give back, we work with several environmentally-minded charities, and we do volunteer beach clean-ups.
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