"With our Boosters, if you ask people to refill the bottles, that mixes batches of products and shelf lives,” they explain. “You can't ask people to clean the bottles before filling as that could introduce additional water droplets if not dried properly, and it is nigh-on impossible to dry a bottle with a very small neck. That then leads to the high possibility of bacteria growth and serious hygiene consequences.
One of the key hurdles when it comes to refillables is that the concept works a lot better for some products than others. Sure, it makes sense to refill a shower gel that everyone in your household uses every morning, but it isn’t so simple when it comes to fiddly items like serums, or products that take a while to get through, such as masks.
One thing set to make it much easier is TerraCycle’s upcoming Loop scheme. Dubbed “the milkman reimagined”, it’ll see products from brands such as Ren, The Body Shop, Nivea and Pantene sold in durable packaging designed to be collected, cleaned and refilled on a regular, subscription-style basis. The scheme has already launched in France and the US , and is set to arrive here in early 2020.
It’s a huge change in terms of the way we do our shopping, and the way that we consume products, but Clarke is positive about the future of refillable products as the idea of sticking to our current habits grows increasingly unsustainable: “Refillable packaging has real potential, and TerraCycle and Loop see it as the future of consumption.”