This is smart. Sun & Earth products, a Pennsylvania based company, has placed refill stations in Philadelphia area sustainable stores where customers can bring bottles and refill them with Sun & Earth’s laundry detergent.

• Money savings – Customers pay by the ounce to refill instead of paying for a whole new package.
• Resource savings – Most plastic bottles that cleaning products come in -- even earth-friendly, natural products – are recyclable. However, when plastic bottles get recycled they don’t, it’s a resource intensive process. Plastic bottles don’t get recycled into plastic bottles. They get recycled into other plastic items. That means that most of the time when you buy a product in a plastic bottle, new, raw materials were used to create it. Having the ability to refill cleaning product bottles without having to consume additional plastic bottles is a huge environmental help.
• Combats the disposable mentality – The more we dispose of, either by sending it to the landfill or sending it to the recycling plant, the more we get comfortable with just throwing things away. The disposable mentality is beginning to change. Just look at reusable bags as an example. Refill stations like this one are another step in reversing the disposable mentality that has gripped our culture for so many decades. 

• Big Green Earth Store - 934 South Street in Philadelphia
• Greenable - 820 North 4^th Street Philadelphia
• Martindale’s Natural Market - 1172 Baltimore Pile, Springfield, PA
• Kimberton Whole Foods – 2140 Kimberton Rd. Kimberton, PA

Do you know of any other manufacturers that have programs like the Sun & Earth refill station?