We recycle so many plastic containers. Hand soap, shampoo, conditioner, body wash, dish soap, etc. And, while recycling is great, we often wish we could just reuse instead.
We were thrilled when we realized that a store just two blocks away will allow us to do that.
Body Time (which has a few locations throughout the Bay Area) specializes in sustainable, organic, botanical personal care products and they'll refill bottles for you!
We just bought 8 oz. of Citrus Conditioning Rinse ($12.50), and when we're done with it, we'll take the bottle back in to the store and have it refilled for $12 (a 50 cent discount).
It's true, they will only refill their own bottles; but, the product smells so nice, we didn't really mind switching brands.
We know from firsthand experience that it can be hard to find a store that carries bulk bath items and that will refill bottles. If you have one in your neighborhood, please share its name and location for the benefit of curious readers!
Copyright © 2008 Apartment Therapy
Great point. I've only just managed to move up to buying large refills for handsoap last week.
view Lady J's profile
It is really great that they refill their bottles but the ingredients in their products are questionable?
The Moisturizing Shampoo Contains: Purified water, sodium laureth sulfate, cocamide DEA, disodium cocoamphodiacetate, coamidopropyl betaine, quaternized acetamide MEA, citric acid, sodium chloride, DMDM hydantoin, hydroxypropyl methylcellulose, methylparaben, hydrolyzed keratin, propylparaben.
SLS and parabens?
view skinnydipnyc's profile
I've found so far that it's near impossible to find a good shampoo without ANY of the potential nasties. No SLS is doable, but then you keep reading and find out there's worse in there, and I have to say I don't think I've ever seen a shampoo sans parabens. In a perfectly sustainable world, we'd be low maintenance enough to just wash our hair with Dr. Bronner's. But considering good shampoo is pretty much my only "product" vice, I guess I'll just have to take the risk until I find something I actually like with none of the scary chemicals I hate.
That said, I have some truly frightening spray-in pomade I'm pretty sure is much more noxious than necessary...
view the opoponax's profile
There are many great shampoos that do not contain parabens or SLS. I love Simply Organic Everyday Shampoo, and Dr. Hauschka Apricot Shampoo. I agree that it is difficult to find products without any nasties in them. However, some nasties, such as parabens, should be avoided. There's enough research linking parabens to breast cancer, birth defects, etc. to keep me from slathering them on my body. Read more about parabens at: http://www.breastcancerfund.org/site/pp.asp?c=kwKXLdPaE&b=1203361
view skinnydipnyc's profile