David Falconar Montreal Dec 15, 2007 18:28 pm

Hi,

I am trying to do some research about what I might call more sustainable shopping. Sure, we have all heard about banning plastic bags and re-usable shopping bags. I'd like to know if anyone's gone a step further, and by this I mean they would have in-store available refills for many products. This could apply to anything: toothpaste, shampoo, liquid soap, milk, juice, laundry detergent, flour, etc., basically any product where a re-usable bottle could be substituted for a one-time use one. What I'm looking for refers to a store where you can bring a standard sized issued bottle or container to the store and then purchase whatever product in liquid form, and take it home in the same bottle that you brought to the store empty. This you could repeat seemingly endlessly, meaning that manufacturers would send their products en-masse to distribution outlets without having to bottle or package them. In a distribution system like this, packaging materials would be substantially reduced or almost eliminated altogether. An example would be milk going to the store in those big milk trucks, unloaded into a tank at the store, where customers or employees would then refill customers' bottles.

Thanks for any help,
-David ([email protected])