We’ve seen various initiatives to reduce plastic waste. Some brands are starting to replace their plastic packaging with paper. There are also some establishments that are starting to replace plastic straws. Recently, a Reddit user with the handle Lord-AG shared a photo of a cleaning product refilling station. It was spotted at a Rossman store in the Czech Republic.

Rossman is Germany’s second-largest drugstore chain. They have teamed up with Henkel, a German consumer goods company, for this brilliant environmental effort. The refilling station features a machine that dispenses laundry detergent and dishwashing liquid. Customers can simply bring their clean and empty product bottles to have them refilled instead of buying new ones. As such, this initiative helps reduce single-use plastic waste and may even lessen the production of new plastic.

The sign at the refilling station reads “Beauty is Saving the Nature Together”

The world produces over 300 million tons of plastic each year, and 50% accounts for single-use purposes. So, imagine the great impact that reusing a plastic container could bring. Technically, it might even help reduce the adverse effects of plastic waste by half if practiced on a global scale.

SOAP is another refill soap shop that promotes BYOB or bring your own bottle for their refilling service. Here’s what the Missouri-based shop has to say regarding the initiative to go plastic-free:

“It’s becoming obvious to everyone now that plastic doesn’t just go away. We are all becoming more and more aware of the impact of our wastefulness. But what can we do to help? Reduce, reuse, and refill.”

Croatia’s port city, Rijeka, also boasts of a plastic-free vending machine that dispenses organic condiments and other all-natural products

It’s great to see more and more brands and establishments taking the necessary steps to help save Mother Earth. As a matter of fact, such refilling machines date back to as early as 2010. Among the pioneer machines was Martin Gagne’s laundry detergent refilling machine hailing from Montreal, Quebec. Gagne pitched his idea to the CBC reality show entitled Dragons’ Den. Not long after, he received several franchise offers from various companies and grocery stores for his innovative machine.

Meanwhile, there’s even an online tutorial on how to make a DIY shampoo vending machine on Instructables. User Log GC has shared the step-by-step process and all the materials needed to build a shampoo dispenser. The materials include a single-board computer called Raspberry Pi 3 and other building materials like MDF wood and plastic tubes. You can find the complete tutorial here.

If it’s a viable DIY project, then companies shouldn’t have a problem implementing them on a larger scale. Hopefully, we could see more of these refilling stations soon, especially for other fast-moving consumer goods.

The online community shows full support for this initiative of putting up refilling stations for cleaning products and other commodities.