New Roanoke refill shop aims to reduce plastic waste

ROANOKE, Va. (WDBJ) - Do you dream of reducing plastic waste and refilling your everyday essentials with non-toxic products? A new low-waste shop at Towers Shopping Center in Roanoke is helping you fill those needs.

As you step inside Simply Refillery, you’re greeted by the aromas of clean and sustainable household products lining the shelves.

“I tried to look through every single ingredient in all the products. I wanted to make sure that I was bringing the cleanest things to people. I think people are really in tune to what we put into our bodies, but I think it’s a newer thing to think about the things that we’re putting onto our bodies,” said owner Brittany Fields.

Simply Refillery is a low-waste shop where customers can purchase or bring their own reusable containers to refill everyday items like laundry detergent, dish soap, cleaners, conditioner, body wash, and more. And yes, even beard oil and pet conditioner. So how does it work?

“We’ll weigh this container. It comes out to 8.6. so, we’ll write this down here,” said Fields.

Then customers head over to find a product they want to purchase.

“You can fill as much or as little as you want. Once they’ve filled their bottles, they’ll bring them to the front. We’ll weigh those again and then it’ll take off the weight of the container so you’re only paying for the product that you get,” said Fields.

Fields is a labor, delivery and IV nurse who recognized a need for accessible sustainable living in the Roanoke Valley.

“Single-use plastic has become a big problem. It’s estimated that only about 9% of the plastic we’re recycling is actually being recycled. The rest of that is ending up in our landfills and environment. I believe that if everyone picked one thing in their house to refill instead of buying a new one every time, I think we would see a big change,” said Fields.

She leads by example with her own store’s product containers.

“My goal when I was finding my products was to find wholesalers that would do closed loop. So, once these items are empty, they get sent back to the companies. They clean, sanitize, refill these again and send them back to us,” said Fields.

Simply Refillery is open Tuesday- Friday from 10am- 4:30pm and Saturdays from 10a-4pm.