Every Thursday and Saturday, newly opened zero waste business The Clean Refill displays glass bottles of home and body products on a table at 110 Orr Street in the North Village Arts District of Columbia. 

Founder and owner Leah Christian created the business, which opened on Aug. 18, with the purpose of selling zero waste, refillable products in an attempt to limit plastic waste. Christian said the idea came to her about a year ago during the start of the pandemic.

“Last year when COVID hit, the city suspended recycling for a while,” Christian said. “Personally, I felt like I was accumulating so much plastic waste … I wanted to get products that didn’t have [that] waste associated with them, so in a sense, I kind of started this for myself.”

According to the 2016-2017 Waste Composition Study by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, the most recent of these state waste composition studies conducted, nearly 65% of materials disposed as waste from the residential sector could have been recycled or composted, with 22.5% of the waste being curbside recyclables such as plastics. Data collected by the Environmental Protection Agency shows that nationally, an estimated less than 10% of plastic produced is ever recycled. 

“I feel like if everybody stopped using single-use plastic, the positive impact on the environment would be huge,” Christian said.

Christian gets her products delivered in 50-gallon reusable drums from three different suppliers, which are returned to them once they’re emptied. Using pumps, Christian transfers the products to clean bottles and containers and labels them. Her products include a broad spectrum of home and body goods, such as laundry wash, dish soap, surface and floor cleaners, Castile soaps, shampoo, lotion, deodorant, face cleansers and more. 

“The only things that aren’t zero waste are the labels, which I have per FDA, but even those are made with post-consumer recycled paper,” Christian said. 

The consumer zero waste cycle starts when a customer buys a new product, paying for the bottle or container upon first purchase. Then, when they use up the product, they can either bring the empty bottle back to Christian to be replaced with a full one or have one delivered to their home if they have signed up for her subscription service. The empty container is then high-pressure washed and sanitized using UV light before being refilled and sold again. A tracker on her website estimates how many plastic bottles purchasers have kept from going to the landfill by opting for Christian’s reusable glass alternatives; 36 as of Sept. 8. 

“The idea is that you get one bottle for a product you use, such as shampoo or floor cleaner, and you just never throw it away,” Christian said. “My big vision would be to get everyone in Columbia to do this, but right now the goal that I set is 30% of the population.” 

MU senior Alyx Kalleberg heard about The Clean Refill from his older sister, who is also a student at the university. He said that he already bought a bottle of body wash and plans to purchase more products from the business in the near future.

“It’s the first time I’ve seen something like this in Columbia,” Kalleberg said. “It’s local, female-owned, small business and zero waste, so it hits a lot of checks that I want to help support.”

Kalleberg, who grew up in St. Charles, Missouri, said that finding affordable zero waste products is often difficult and that he was impressed by both Christian’s reasonable prices and the wide selection of products she offered. 

“She’s got a really great thing going, and I’m excited to see how far it will go,” Kalleberg said.

__Edited by Shannon Worley | sworley@themaneater.com__