Fighting Plastic Pollution, Pandemic Style

LA Refill & Reuse Businesses Adapt to COVID-19

By Mari J. Young

LA Reuse & Refill Businesses Adapt to COVID-19

By Mari J. Young

Kelly Murphy first noticed the problem of plastic pollution on a snorkeling trip to Fiji. Sometimes it was as small as an “errant water bottle,” but other times it was a pile of trash entangled in seaweed or a plastic vacuum cleaner wedged in the reef.

When she returned to Los Angeles she was shocked by the amount of single-use plastic in her home. From detergents and dish soaps to toiletries and cosmetics – most of her household goods were either stored in plastic containers or sold in plastic packaging.

“The pandemic cannot be an excuse to move back to an era of widespread disposables.”

— Greenpeace

A lack of bulk-buying options in LA pushed Murphy to open her own refill business. To keep startup costs low, she converted her partner Lawrence Lee’s old surf van into “Refillery LA” – the nation’s first mobile refill station. The business sells everything from laundry detergent and hair conditioner to zero-waste toothpaste tablets and beeswax saran-wrap alternatives. You can view their menu and schedule a no-contact “house call” here.

“Access is the biggest obstacle to making better environmental decisions,” Murphy says. “There are people like us trying to make these changes in their lives. They just don’t know where to start.”

Being mobile has allowed Refillery LA to address a growing demand for refill services since 2017. (Courtesy of Kelly Murphy and Lawrence Lee).

When COVID-19 emerged, Refillery LA was approaching its “biggest month in history,” says Lee. The business had hit its three-year stride, and April 2020 – Earth Month – promised a full roster of partnership events with big brands like Patagonia and The World Surf League.

As Earth Day events went virtual, Refillery LA lost what would have been "a huge boost in visibility,” the co-founders said. House calls from loyal customers kept the business running until Los Angeles farmers markets picked up speed in response to Mayor Eric Garcetti's June social distancing guidlines.

Despite strong intra-community support, it was "a moment of reckoning" for Refillery LA. Murphy and Lee watched their neighbors stock up on soaps, sanitizers and disinfectant sprays – all stored in plastic. Discarded masks and gloves appeared on city sidewalks as takeout containers “overflowed from recycling bins.”

What started as a human health crisis quickly became an environmental catastrophe.

Back in March, the World Health Organization projected that personal protective equipment (PPE) production would need to increase by 40% monthly to meet global demand during the pandemic – including an estimated 89 million masks, 76 million pairs of gloves and 1.6 million pairs of goggles.

The UN now estimates that 75% of medical waste - which contains a range of different microplastics - will end up in oceans and landfills.

The Global Crisis of Plastic Pollution
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Over the last decade, the plastic pollution crisis has taken center stage. Images of cluttered beaches, ocean gyres, and plastic debris bursting from the stomachs of dead animals have emboldened a new generation of anti-plastic activists. The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) calls it “the most visible example of the havoc we’re causing to our planet.”

For activists leading the charge against toxic waste, the pandemic represents a massive setback.

Dianna Cohen, co-founder and CEO of Plastic Pollution Coalition – one of the largest advocacy groups marshalling the fight against plastics – says she “didn’t realize,” at first, "how bad it would be."

When the oil market crashed due to global lockdowns last spring, “virgin plastic” – manufactured from fossil fuels and coal byproducts – became cheaper than recycling. Between economic incentive and conflicting narratives about how the virus is spread, Cohen says plastic lobbyists were “poised and waiting” to take advantage of the situation, pressing policymakers on state and federal levels to rollback plastic bans.

Yet research shows that dispsables might not be the dream solution lobbyists portray it to be.

In concert with Greenpeace’s report defending the safety of reusables last August, 125 health experts released a statement emphasizing that disposable systems do not guarantee safety from viral transmission, and are not inherently safer than reusables. Endorsed by scientists, academics, doctors, and food safety specialists from around the world, the statement notes that COVID-19 was detectable on plastic up to 72 hours after application. They encourage restaurants and foodservice businesses to continue to comply with food safety codes such as “dishwashing at high temperatures” and other standard industry procedures.

“It is important for businesses and governments to know that as they reopen, reusable systems can be deployed safely to protect our environment, customers and workers,” John Hocevar, Oceans Campaign Director at Greenpeace, urged in an accompanying research brief.

“Choosing to act on bad advice from the plastic industry rather than the best available science will not keep people safe and will make our plastic pollution crisis even worse,” he said.

Businesses like Refillery LA are on the front lines of fighting plastic pollution at the local level. They are committed to nurturing "trust in reuse and refill systems," Murphy says.

Despite the plastic industry's attempt to exploit fears about hygiene, Refillery LA has seen their consumer base expand during the pandemic.

“More first-time customers are reaching out about home delivery,” Murphy says. Although the company has lost revenue overall, the co-founders are "happy to see new faces."

Long-time patrons have also begun coordinating house calls. As they wait for sanitized refills, people socialize at a distance, encourage neighbors to try zero-waste products, and share education on reusables. Reducing the van's carbon footprint by servicing more people in one area is an added bonus for the business. It has allowed the co-owners to reduce the cost of delivery - making refills more accessible.

Although Murphy and Lee have cut back on farmers market visits, they still attend the Mar Vista Farmers Market every first Sunday of the month.

Tare Grocery, a package-free bulk grocery store located in Highland Park, Los Angeles, is another small business continuing to offer refill services during the pandemic.

Co-founders Joseph and Lauren Macrino said they were “confronted with the overuse of plastic packaging in Los Angeles’ grocery stores” when they moved to the city back in 2017. It was a stark change from San Francisco, where they had become accustomed to a plethora of co-ops and bulk buying options.

Like Kelly Murphy and Lawrence Lee of Refillery LA, the Macrinos decided to take matters into their own hands. When they pioneered Tare, however, they had the aim of making refill services more accessible to low-income buyers.

“Especially when it comes to food, which is purchased at high volumes, zero-waste can get expensive,” the co-founders say. That is why Tare allows customers to bring their own pre-sanitized containers into the store. Shoppers can use anything from old tomato sauce jars to extra tupperware containers, which Tare employees then wipe down a second time. All food decantation now takes place at back of the store and is handled by staff.

“Once you start shopping this way it becomes obvious how much more affordable groceries can be,” says Joseph Macrino. “You are only purchasing the food itself, and not a branded piece of packaging along with it.”

Tare is currently the only zero-waste grocer in Los Angeles that accepts EBT, or CalFresh food stamps. They continue to offer these services in the face of pandemic-related financial losses because they believe in the importance of promoting the refill model "across many communities.”

The co-founders say they want to move away from the "hippy-dippy, crunchy-lifestyle image,” and “make refilling a thing of the future for everyone.”

Making a 'Green' Recovery

“The pandemic has proven, if anything, that reuse models work,” says Dianna Cohen of the nonprofit Plastic Pollution Coalition. Restaurants and stores are still observing the same sanitary protocols they were before the pandemic, and they’re "working better than plastic alternatives.”

She, like many anti-plastic advocates, believes we are facing an opportunity to build back better - and greener.

Reuse is seeing a global resurgance from savvy entrepreneurs and small businesses to huge online grocers offering food delivery in resuable containers, such as The Wallyshop. The better known Loop is expanding into global markets alongside brands such as Kroger, Walgreens, Tesco, Unilever, and Procter & Gamble.

"The pandemic cannot be an excuse to move back to an era of widespread disposables," says Greenpeace. These businesses show us we don't have to.