The Body Shop wants refills to become mainstream. So, from April 2021, the brand launched an ambitious rollout of refill stations across 500 stores globally and a further 300 stores in 2022.
Locally, The Body Shop will launch the first refill stations into Australian stores from July 7, beginning with its Emporium and Highpoint stores in Melbourne.
The Body Shop want refills to be easy, convenient and accessible to everyone, which is why this is the first step in a five-year plan to roll out refill stations in the majority of stores across the globe.
The brand has always believed in something revolutionary. In fact, The Body Shop’s refill service was first developed out of practical necessity, 45 years ago.
When Anita Roddick opened her first store in Brighton in 1976, she refilled her customers’ bottles because she simply could not afford new ones. Growing up during the war and spending a lot of time in her mum’s kitchen, it seemed natural to Anita to re-use, refill and recycle.
"Why waste a container when you can refill it? And why buy more of something than you can use? We behaved as my mother did in the Second World War, we reused everything, we refilled everything, and we recycled all we could. The foundation of The Body Shop's environmental activism was born out of ideas like these," said Dame Anita Roddick.
JOIN THE REFILL REVOLUTION
Just pick up your refillable aluminium bottle and choose from 10 of the brand’s best-loved shower gels, shampoos, conditioners and hand washes. Once you’ve finished, give it a rinse, bring it back and refill it.
By making the simple switch to refill, together we could save over 25 tonnes of plastic every year.** Every individual plays a crucial role in driving this change because every bottle counts.
By switching to refill you could prevent up to 32 plastic bottles from going to waste each year,*** and help prevent up to 2200g of CO2 from entering the atmosphere.*** And it’s not just better for the planet, it’s better for your wallet too. By switching to refills, you could get up to 50ml free each time you refill.
Empty refill bottles are available for RRP $4, with pumps purchased separately for $1. Shower gel refills are RRP $12, with haircare and hand wash refills available for RRP $14.
You can view The Body Shop product range and download hi-res images, here.
To note:
** Calculation is based on 12 months’ forecasted sales (for the period from April 2021 to April 2022) from 500 stores, of refillable products being repurchased in refillable instead of non-refillable 250ml variants.
***Calculation assumes customer switching from The Body Shop 250ml non-refillable plastic bottle variants to the refill variant on 4 formats (Shampoo, Conditioner, Shower Gel & Hand Wash). Then purchasing each of these 8 times per year, which equates to refilling 32 times in a year.
