Recently I have noticed all the waste (mostly plastic) we produce from our bathrooms. Looking around my family's bathroom I see a plethora of items that my family uses once and then throws away or recycles. Some of these items include toothpaste, deodorant tubes, fragrance bottles, medicine bottles and packaging, shampoo, conditioner, body wash and lotion bottles. My family has used many of the same products for years, and when we run out we go to the store and buy a new bottle. Why is this necessary? Companies should start having programs where you buy a bottle once and then can send your bottle back to the company to be refilled. Even having customers purchase 2 bottles so that they can insure that the have one at all times would prevent the creation of tons of unnecessary waste. This concept is already being put to use in the beverage world. Beveragedaily.com discusses the benefits of using refillable bottles in their article "Refillable bottles are the future, says Petainer, unveiling ‘greenest ever’ bottle" by Ben Bouckley, the deputy online editor of the site. Acco rding to Bouckley, "firms using one-way bottles (thrown away after use) could spend four or five times as much on packaging as companies bottling equivalent volumes in refillable bottles." The article also discusses how refilling systems have lower carbon footprints than non-refilling systems and use less water and energy. Refilling bottles has some major benefits and systems that do so should be much more widely implemented.

That's actually a really good thought. i mean why would we need to keep buying things over and over again when we cant recycle and when we could just reuse. so i get wheat your saying.

at our local co-op, you can buy dish soap, shampoo, conditioner, hand soap and laundry soap in bulk, so  we bring in old bottles and refill them a bunch of times.  I'll bet there are several places like that in Oakland or Berkeley

Great idea Kendall! I think this concept could also be applied to milk as well. I mean, back in the day, the norm was for milk to be purchased in glass bottles and then refilled every week. My family occasionally purchases milk from Broguiere's, a family owned company that still does this. Because milk is a commonly bought product, replacing one time use plastic gallon containers with reusable glass bottles could do away with a lot of unnecessary trash.

I think that this is a great idea Kendall! It wouldn't just be beneficial to the environment, but it would also be beneficial to humans to cut don on the amount of plastic packaging. Almost all processed foods are packaged in plastic that can be harmful to humans. Each time someone eats a food that was packaged in plastic they are exposed to the harmful chemical that go into making those plastics. A British Medical Journal says that the chemicals include  formaldehyde which is known to cause cancer. Substances like these are legal to use in packaging knowing that they are harmful to humans. Cutting down on plastic can help save human lives and the life of our planet.

Very insightful Kendall! I think this is a great idea considering how successful this has been for water bottles. At my own school I took a look at one of the water fountains and it read that we have helped eliminate 65,596 bottles from going to waste. Considering there are four fountains at my school, thats a total around 262,388 bottles. In my own community, the small steps that we have taken have already made a difference. Now, if businesses started to implement the same concept, that would make a huge difference. Of course this concept would not always work considering companies are constantly creating new products and disposing of old ones, but if corporations started to take action to reduce their carbon footprint if would be significant. I suggest all companies should be required to produce recyclable or all natural bottle

This summer, I bought a container of hand soap and the bottle was made from recovered ocean plastic.  Method employees actually collected plastic debris from the beach which was then recycled into a soap bottle.

Jason, I will definitely keep that it mind. I would love it if my family could participate in a program like that.

Viviana, I also thought of the old mil system when I was writing this post. I think it would be great if we could return to that sort of system to reduce waste as well as apply this to other areas of of lives. An example of this is the water fountains built for reusable water bottles that Borami brought up.

Our world had turned to consumerism and manufacturing disposable things that will wear out quickly. We need to go back to only using products that are built to last so we stop creating so much unnecessary waste.

Great point Kendall! I have noticed the same trend recently too. I know with printer ink, they have programs where you can send back used cartridges for recycling. However I do not believe the companies send them back to the consumer. If a exchange program could be developed for companies that develop items with reusable potential, I think it would be very beneficial to the environment, the consumer, and even the company.

I think that would be a really good idea, especially for developing countries. It would save money and help the environment.

That is so cool Karen that Method turned waste into a useful product!

Brandon, I think you comment definitely related to Viviana, Marissa, and Borami's posts. This concept could be applied to products in every area of our lives, not just in our bathroom as I discussed in my original post. You guys mentioned milk, reusable water bottles, food packaging and ink cartridges. Imagine if all the products we buy were designed to have a life time warranty. If you needed them refilled, repaired, or updated, you could just send them back to the manufacturer and they would be modified. They would take the existing material and just add to it, therefore reducing tons of waste by not having to create all new products from fresh materials. We would reduce both our mining of materials, as well as our created waste!