There’s a definitive moment when thoughts and passion crystalize and the way ahead becomes clear. For Hailey Carter, the owner of the soon-to-open “Refillery,” it was becoming aware of the miniscule plastic fragments left behind from plastic pollution.
“The thing that became my turning point was reading about microplastics,” said Carter as we stood in the middle of her new store on RR12, two doors down from The Fair Dinkum coffee shop.
Called the “Refillery,” the shop gives customers the choice of reusing the containers that everyday products come in instead of using up the liquid and throwing away the plastic container.
“The world is drowning in plastic pollution,” said Carter. “It takes anywhere from 5 to 20 years for plastic to biodegrade. We’ve already run out of space on land and in the ocean for plastic waste.”
Multiple sources report that only 9% of all the plastic produced in the world is recycled. A whopping two million plastic bags are used every minute. In some parts of the world, single- use plastics are illegal. A truckload of plastic is dumped into the ocean every minute of the day.
Microplastics are extremely small pieces of plastic debris in the environment that are the result of the disposal and breakdown of consumer products and industrial plastics.
“We encounter microplastics everywhere: from trash, dust, fabrics, cosmetics, cleaning products, rain, seafood, produce, table salt, and much more. Microplastics have been detected throughout the human body, including in the blood, saliva, liver, kidneys, and placenta,” wrote Stephanie Dutchen in a 2023 article for the Harvard Medical School magazine.
“Investigators are probing how they get into other organs and tissues from the lungs and gastrointestinal tract. Microplastics smaller than one mi- crometer, known as nanoplastics, worry researchers the most because they can infiltrate cells,” Dutchen’s article continued.
“We can all play a part in reducing the huge impact that plastic waste has on this planet,” said Carter. “If everyone took one small step to reduce the amount of plastic containers they discard, it will make a huge difference over time,” she said.
One way is to refill bath and body products and cleaning supplies without purchasing another plastic bottle that would have to be thrown away.
Carter’s Refillery will carry premium high-quality bath and body products that are baby friendly, fragrance free, dye free, as well as cleaning products that are biodegradable and environmentally friendly. When you bring your own container, you simply pay for the product by the ounce.
If a customer wants a product that the Refillery doesn’t stock, Carter is open to including it.
“If it jives with our eco-conscious and eco-friendly mission, I’d love to hear about it,” she said.
When asked why she chose to open the Refillery in Wimberley, she said, “Wimberley is a great place to launch this kind of business. The people here already have respect for the environment and a love for eco-conscious living.”
