Post date: September 28, 2023 | Blog
Refilling vs Recycling | Which Is Better For The Environment?
Lately, we’ve had to deal with a lot of impact that irresponsible and unsustainable business practices have placed on the earth. Mainly, the relatively recent increase in the production of plastic and more recent decrease in the recyclability of plastic. All of which leads us to a single question, which is better for the environment? Refilling or recycling our goods?
Now, here at Volt, we’re an active bunch of guys. Many of our shared hobbies include surfing, hiking, biking, running, weightlifting, and more. And many of these activities require us to use certain natural landscapes like the mountains or beach.
And here lies the heart of our interest in the topic of sustainability. Quite frankly, we hate watching these landscapes that we love and enjoy being overridden with trash and debris. Especially, when there’s something we can all do about it.
That is why we created our brand new aluminum refillable line of products including shampoo, body wash, beard wash, shave gel, and aftershave. Just grab one of Volt’s eco-refill packs and you can refill your aluminum bottles many times over.
It not only helps save you money by lowering the cost for refills, but also helps out the world we live in. Now, let’s talk about refilling vs recycling.
The answer to the question posed above is this: Refilling is ALWAYS better than recycling. And for the following main reasons.
Before we begin, if you’re interested in grabbing your own refillable products, we highly recommend signing up for the free Volt Amp-It-Up rewards program. That way, you can earn Amps towards future purchases, discounts, prizes, and more for free. Click the button below to learn more.
Plastic Is Rarely Recycled
The increase in the use and production of plastics is becoming a huge issue, especially when paired with the recent decrease in recyclability of these plastics.
Plastics are used because they are durable and cheap, making it a perfect material for various forms of packaging, bottling, etc. The only downside is that plastic is not a natural material, degrades very slowly, and due to it’s low cost, has literally flooded our landscapes because it is cheaper to produce than it is to recycle into usable raw material.
Capitalism isn’t all bad, of course, but one of its inherent downsides is that there is nothing done if not for the money. In order to stay competitive, companies need to lower costs.
This is a two-way problem. Not only do they purchase cheap plastic materials for goods or packaging because it’s cheap, but plastic is rarely recycled because it’s more costly to do so.
This unfortunate cycle causes plastic to be the leading cause of physical pollution that can be seen in our landscapes. Take the following metrics for example.
In the last few years, less than 8% of discarded plastic is actually recycled. Compare this to aluminum, which has a recycling rate of 70%-80%. Why is aluminum recycled so much more? Simple, because there is more money to be gotten out of doing so.
This is exactly why we at Volt try and use aluminum for packaging anything we possibly can.
From our shampoo and body wash bottles to even our beard balm and mustache wax tins, it’s aluminum. That way, if anything is thrown away instead of refilled, at least it will be purposefully recycled.
Recycling Requires Processing Materials
The main difference between recycling and refilling is that recycling requires more money and materials to be put into transforming used material into reusable material. Whereas refilling starts its journey as “reusable material”.
Think about it, recycled bottles have to be processed a certain way before they can once again become raw plastic materials.
Often times, being able to process this plastic is more costly than the output of usable plastic allows for. Meaning that recycling plastic is not a viable option in a capitalist economy.
Refilling is always the way to go, because the moment a plastic container is empty it effectively becomes “usable material” once again, but only as long as it’s being used for the same purpose.
Think about how much more effective it would be to refill your plastic water bottle than it would be to send that bottle to a recycle center and have them produce material for a BRAND NEW bottle that you then fill with water once again. Even by refilling the same bottle once, you’re effectively cutting out the entire need for recycling that bottle.
Although this example may sound small and insignificant, image if that occured for all the 500 BILLION plastic bottles that are used EVERY YEAR. And remember, only less than 8% is being recycled.
Refilling Saves YOU Money
Even if the environmental impact was of no concern to you, here’s something that certainly would be. Refilling saves you money. Take Volt’s refillable products for example.
Like I mentioned before, Volt’s shampoo, body wash, shave gel, aftershave, and beard wash are packaged in refillable aluminum bottles. Pretty stylish ones too, but that’s just me.
When you buy a Volt refill pack, you’re getting 900ml of product in a large aluminum pouch with which to refill your aluminum bottles. That pouch costs far less money than the bottles, meaning the cost for the product is mainly just the product itself. And because you’re buying it in bulk, the cost diminishes more and more over time every time you refill your aluminum volt bottles.
That aluminum pouch is still more recyclable than plastic, meaning you also benefit the environment while benefitting your wallet with some premium men’s grooming products.
We wish that more large companies and brands would begin to think this way. Because if we were to make customer-friendly and cost-effective products with packaging that can be reused in such a way, and made it popular within the market, imagine how much more we could ease the environmental impact that plastics and discarded trash have caused.
That’s why you should ALWAYS refill.
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