The Nickel Refillery is Sudbury’s first zero-waste retail store and community hub offering common household and personal care products that are unpackaged or sustainably packaged, many of them in bulk. A location has been secured and we need your help to refit the store and purchase equipment.
 
Consumption to Sustainability 
Recycling has been labeled the most successful environmental initiative in human history. However, the exponential production of recyclable packaging products has overwhelmed the infrastructure and has created systemic barriers impacting the success of this initiative. 
To adopt the principles of zero-waste living, we need to first discard the idea of waste. Everything is created from a resource, and waste is merely a resource going in the wrong direction. By changing the way resources are thought of, and thereby how they flow through our society and communities, we can reap substantial environmental, economic, and social benefits. This change in thinking is, in effect, the essential framework for a sustainable development model for the community. We save energy, water, resources, and greenspace by shifting our focus from consumption to sustainability. We reduce pollution of air, land, and water by using recycled materials. We create a host of new job opportunities that can benefit those in our society who face some of the greatest barriers to employment. Best of all, these positions can be generated in places like Sudbury, where livelihoods are created instead of landfills. 
 
The Store
The Nickel Refillery (opening late summer of 2019) is a retail shop that will offer customers everyday zero-waste supplies and products that are free of plastic packaging. Our shop will offer only unpackaged or sustainably packaged items, and a variety of bulk products, many of them on tap. Here are some of the products you will find in the store: 
personal care and hygiene items for the entire family (hair and body care, mouth care, deodorant, shaving supplies)
home cleaning supplies (laundry supplies, dish soap, diswasher tabs, handsoap, multisurface cleaner)
ingredients for DIY projects (salts, baking soda, clay)
sustainable kitchen goods (wax wraps, metal and glass containers, brushes)
products made by local artisans (home and personal care)
Over the past few months, we have sourced a variety of products with a focus on those that are local or Canadian, organic, non-toxic, preservative-free, and cruelty-free, all in bulk and without disposable packaging.