Accessibility to refillable and affordable options make the difference when it comes to household items.
Kate Bennett used to run her small refillery from a van that would make house calls to refill soaps, detergents and other items in an effort to cut down on plastic waste. For the past few months, Bennett has been running the refillery out of her new shop New Way Refillery, in a shop under Lucero Hall on Colorado Mesa University’s (CMU) campus.
“We outgrew the van because we couldn’t hold products there anymore, and we needed the roof over our head,” Bennett said. “[Sometimes] people just wanted to take a look and not commit to a whole house call, and we didn’t have a space where people could just come and look and try things out. People often felt that if they scheduled a house call, they had to commit to a big purchase, when they maybe just needed to just refill shampoo.”
Bennett took the idea from seeing refilleries in bigger cities. She started in the van to see if there would be demand for one in the Grand Valley.
The shop offers an array of products made with sustainable ingredients that are biodegradable and plant-based, including lotions, hair products, detergents, bamboo toilet paper and sanitizers.
“I go and research every ingredient on every product that we carry. I try everything first before we purchase it to sell,” Bennett said.
Bennett found people enthusiastic about the idea in the Grand Valley, especially farmer’s markets.
“People kept telling me, ‘wow, we really wanted Grand Junction to have something like this, thank you for operating in Grand Junction, I’m so excited,’” Bennett said.
The van was started by Bennett in early 2021, before moving to the store in November 2021. The biggest patrons of her business are usually people shopping for the household, often parents that are refilling many different items.
“I liked recycling. […] from ideas of minimalism and efficiency,” Bennett said.
CMU’s Sustainability Council has collaborated with New Way Refillery as well. The Zero Waste Wagon, a notable project created by campus Resident Assistants Leah Molè and Chloe Fortier-King, is moving into the store where students who show their MavCards will be able to get free refills of detergent and soap from the wagon.
“[Kate is] very committed to this. Now we have a store whose sole prerogative and emphasis is on being 100% sustainable and it’s pretty much on campus. To me that marks a significant cultural shift at CMU,” Sustainability Council President Ryan Biller said.
Bennett noted that the Sustainability Council showed tremendous support for her business.
Bennett is a Ukraine native that moved to the United States five years ago, first living in Salt Lake City before coming to Grand Junction.
“Thank you everyone for the warm messages and keeping Ukraine in your thoughts. I’m touched by your kindness and acceptance of me, a Ukrainian, to your community,” Bennett wrote in an Instagram post on Feb. 25, after Russia launched an invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24.
For the last week of February, 100% of the profits from the store were donated by Bennett to the Come Back Alive organization.
Bennett is looking to grow the shop in the future. She runs the store by herself five days a week currently, although is hoping that someday more hires can be made and hours can be expanded. The money from the shop currently is reinvested by Bennett into buying more products and growing the business.
“We need clean air, clean water. We need trees, we need land to be fertile to eat from it. We are part of this ecosystem. It’s too sad, but it’s not as common of an opinion yet. I think we’re moving there. I think more and more people realize their connection to the earth and how important it is to be sustainable,” Bennett said.
