The Refilleri is a Chicago-based, woman-owned business offering high quality waste free goods. We currently have one brick and mortar location in the Humboldt Park neighborhood. We offer personal care items, home goods, lifestyle items, and (coming soon) basic bulk foods and beverages. For more information on the items we have in stock, check out our online store. A list of our current refill products can be found here.
Whether it be through our “Bring it back” initiative, or with the awesome companies we partner with, we provide easy access to the best recycled and zero waste products on the market, all in one place.
Additionally, we offer workshops and classes to help you on your zero or reduced waste journey.
We also have partnerships to offer recycling and services for some of those hard to dispose of items you may have around the house, such as wine corks or packing materials.
Last but certainly not least, we want to have fun 🙂 Come check us out! Whether it be popping into our shop to say “Hi” and browse our products or attending one of our workshops, we want everyone to enjoy their zero-waste journey!
Bring it Back!
We at the Refilleri, want to bring easy, zero waste solutions to everyone. Our motto is simple: Bring it Back! Let’s face it- living a zero waste or plastic free lifestyle takes a lot of work. Our goal is to make it simple and economically feasible to switch to products that fall in line with our mission: A Plastic Free World.
To make living a more Eco-friendly lifestyle easy and accessible, if you buy at the Refilleri you can Bring it Back! We will either refill it (hence our name) or we will compost/recycle it properly for you. All our products align with this model. Therefore, you no longer have to question what to do with what’s left or rely on your local municipality to attempt to recycle it. Bring it Back to us and we will take care of it for you!
Why should I care about waste free goods?
Because Mother Earth will give you a great big hug for doing so.
Modern society has grown accustomed to inexpensive, mass produced goods which may seem great, but their environmental impact is significant. Did you know it takes ~450 years for a single piece of plastic to decompose? And that’s if it actually ends up in a landfill. So many of the single use products we use everyday are not properly disposed of. Additionally, many municipal recycling programs often fall short and are not able to effectively recycle the items they collect.
Our mission is to eliminate the need to dispose of anything, and not have to wait around for 450 years for results. We offer solutions for reliable recycling, composting, or zero package goods.
Close the Loop!
At the Refilleri, we know recycling isn’t the answer. Therefore, we only partner with companies that “close the loop” aka, take their bottles back to refill. None of the large containers you see in store (or the giant ones in our storage area) ever make it to a recycle bin. We believe in being responsible for your waste, and appreciate that our awesome suppliers do too!
Partnerships
Currently, we partner with some organizations to help the zero waste cause:
Eco-Ship Chicago: We are a drop off point for gently used shipping materials to be repurposed via EcoShip! Check out their site or stop in store for more details on accepted materials!
ReCork: We serve as a drop off point for ReCork. Bring in your wine corks, and we will send them in for you to be repurposed/recycled into a variety of goods! Check out their site for further details.
TerraCycle: Drop off your TerraCycle goods with us! They take a variety of hard to recycle items, and offer sponsored recycling programs. More details and a list of accepted brands can be found here.
Why is your name spelled with an i?
This question may be best suited for our founder’s parents, who named her Kelli…… also with an i.