The return of the refill shop

On a narrow street in Hanoi's Dong Da district, customers queue with empty jars, old shampoo bottles and cloth bags. They fill them with rice, washing-up liquid, cooking oil and soap from large containers, pay by weight and leave without a single piece of plastic. 'Some come every week, and some come once and never again,' says owner Thanh Ha, 34, who opened the shop two years ago.

Refill shops are popping up in cities across Asia and Europe, but the idea is an old one. Two generations ago, milk came in glass bottles that went back to the shop, and people carried their shopping home in baskets. Ha's grandmother still remembers taking her own bottle to the market to buy fish sauce. Throwaway packaging spread with supermarkets, because it made goods cheaper to transport and easier to display. Much of that plastic is never recycled, and countries without good waste systems struggle to deal with it.

Running a refill shop is harder than it looks. Customers have to plan ahead, remember their containers and wash them. Some worry about hygiene, especially with food, since one careless customer could spoil a whole tub of nuts. Rents in the city centre are high, and many purchases are worth only a few thousand dong. On rainy days, almost nobody comes. 'Some months I barely break even,' Ha admits.

That's why some of the most promising schemes are inside large stores. Several supermarket chains in Europe have put in refill stations for pasta, cereal and cleaning products. A few brands are testing reusable containers that customers bring back to the shop to be washed and filled again. Because these sit next to ordinary shelves, they reach shoppers who'd never make a special trip. Ha would love to supply a chain like that one day.

She doesn't claim that refilling will solve the plastic problem. It works for dry food and household liquids, not for fresh meat or medicine. Her regulars say it has changed how they shop, though. 'People tell me they buy less now,' she says. 'When you have to bring your own jar, you stop and ask yourself whether you really need it.'