Posted by By Clio Miller, Staff Writer
Zeroplace is a new apartment building on route 32. People requesting an apartment in it found themselves on a waiting list a month before construction was finished (2022). It is an award-winning, high-performance building – a zero energy ready home for people. On the topic of green energy, the building is covered in solar panels on the roof, has electric car chargers, and staying true to zero emissions, the new Second Nature Refillery store was established on the ground level. With outstanding reviews and a very friendly owner, the Second Nature Refillery’s goal is to help eliminate single-use plastics and make a cleaner world starting in New Paltz.
The owner, Wendy Toman, runs the store with her husband, Dave Toman. She has a lot of experience with environmental action. Her interest started when she worked in a Kindergarten cafeteria and saw first-hand all the plastic and food waste there. Since then she has done much volunteering which eventually led her to found the Second Nature Refillery.
According to Wendy1, the most important things for people to refill are: “household cleaners! Reusing the plastic jugs & bottles to refill saves a lot of new plastics from being manufactured from petroleum – reducing GHGs which are the biggest contributor to climate change. Only 5-6% of plastics are actually recycled in the US, and even those that are recycled are weakened in the process and not able to be re-manufactured more than once…”
All of the large plastic containers in the store are sent back to the companies to be sanitized and refilled. Almost all the farms they get their products from (ex. Berle Farm, Honeyed Roots) take the containers back every week to be sanitized and refilled (called a “closed-loop” system). The store is 100% plastic free – all the plastic found there is reusable. Loyal customers donate their reusable containers, which the employees sanitize in the store and give to people for free. This alone adds up to roughly 200 containers a week. The total amount saved from landfills and recycling centers just at this store is about 800-1,000 containers a week!
Most of their edible products come from small, local businesses from New Paltz to the Finger Lakes region. They rely on small, woman-owned companies for handmade soaps, hair products, candles, lotions, etc. If the foods can’t be sourced locally, for example fresh fruits, grains, nuts, olives, oils etc come from California, Mexico, Greece or Italy. They always source locally if possible to keep their carbon footprint low.
When shipping is necessary, the Refillery pays attention to not only the distance required but also how the products are produced and packaged. Their cane sugar and coconut oil is organic and fair trade produced and are packed in a brown and a 5-gallon reusable plastic bucket. Organic, unsliced bread comes from Bread Alone in a cardboard box without plastic wrapping. Soaps and conditioners come in refillable liquids or unwrapped bars so the customers can cut how much they want. Fresh scones and bread made locally are delivered every weekend.
And of course all the products are made organically and are safe for animals and humans. Any scents added to their products come from pure essential oils from plants. They also have unscented versions of all soap products that are safe for pregnant women, babies, and people with allergies.
Their most popular edible products are: eggs, tofu, yogurt, oats, peanut butter, dried mangos, and apples. Their most popular non-edible products are: laundry soap, dish soap, tooth brushing tablets, and deodorants.
The interior of the Refillery in New Paltz.
In answer to the question, What is the biggest spill you’ve had? Wendy’s response: “The biggest spill was actually a spill-over! a young dad was filling molasses with his toddler son, he turned the spout on thinking it would take awhile to fill and then the son began running around the shop! The dad forgot about the molasses as he chased his son, and it overflowed his jar into the open drawer below and all over the floor! It took over an hour for me and another employee to clean it all up! But they both still shop at the Refillery regularly together; the toddler is now 3 yrs old and learning how to help his dad.
Finally, when asked what schools can do to cut back on their waste, Wendy recommends taking steps towards serving more healthy (“local, organic if possible”) options and composting all the food waste. While that may seem very far off for our own school, it is good to note that the Red Hook schools are already doing both of these things! While changing our food products completely would be a huge change, a compost at the school would be much more simple. The food waste could be used to start a garden and maybe even grow our own food.
Hopefully, reading this article has encouraged you to be more eco-friendly. So the next time you are on your way out to buy groceries, consider taking the local and sustainable option instead by going to the Second Nature Refillery.
- All this information came from an interview with the well-informed Wendy Toman, in which she discussed her store, its impacts, and how plastics work. ↩︎
The Maroon 