When the first Refill Day took place in Great Britain in 2018, the main motivation was simple: the organizers focused primarily on plastic water bottles. The creators had calculated that the inhabitants of Great Britain used an average of 150 of these disposable bottles per year. Quite a lot, isn't it? Please imagine all these plastic bottles on the floor of your apartment – not a pretty sight!
The focus of World Refill Day is now broader. The campaign is generally about avoiding waste when eating, drinking and shopping, which inevitably arises when packaging is only used once. Everyone is called upon to participate, starting with us as consumers. You know the steps: when getting coffee or lunch, use reusable packaging whenever possible. Drink water from your own water bottle (if you live in Europe, the chances are very high that you can tap it from the tap, and it is no worse than the stuff from the supermarket). Buy beer, soda, etc. in reusable bottles.
World Refill Day is not only aimed at consumers, but also at companies. It is their social responsibility – and also in their interest – to avoid waste.
At Soeder, we don't want to pat ourselves on the back; we too need to question our consumption habits. But with our network of refill stations and our refillable glass bottles, we have created a cycle with which we effectively avoid waste. For every bottle refilled, we – and by that we don't mean us, the company, but all of us – save the production of a new one.
WHY REUSABLE MAKES A DIFFERENCE.
The "Overall Environmental Impact" of a product is reduced by about 30% each time a bottle is reused, as researchers at the ZHAW have calculated based on the life cycle assessment of our Natural Shampoo. Using a refill station therefore has a very concrete ecological value. Whether a Soeder bottle or another container is filled is, of course, less important.
For a refill station to work well, as many people as possible need to participate, otherwise the contents of the container will become outdated. Our customers are participating and have clearly proven this on Refill Day! The campaign call to bring us all kinds of containers for refilling was heard. In total, we filled 370l of soap, shampoo, lotion, deodorant and hand sanitizer into various containers in our own stores on this day, from mason jars to soda bottles. This amount would fill almost 1500 250ml bottles, which were thus saved. That's something to be proud of!
Another number that makes us happy is 4778. That's how many times bottles were refilled with our most popular Herbal Garden soap at one of our Soeder refill stations last year. Among other things, this means avoiding the production of 4778 glass bottles and the corresponding number of cardboard packages.
If we add the amount of our other soaps that were refilled last year, as well as that of other products, and also add the refills of all partner stations, then we arrive at an impressively high number. But we still have to determine this exactly!
The network of Soeder Refill Partners is now not only close-knit, but also far-reaching! In Switzerland we already have 129 stations and the first locations have already been established abroad. And only in this way, with the support of our partners, can refilling have its full effect. Many thanks to everyone who participates, operates stations and diligently refills.
We have a lot planned for the coming years when it comes to refilling, so please stay tuned, refill and join in!
(Would you like to build a refill station? Get in touch.