Wondering where to shop for Plastic Free July? Our Green Business Directory is the place to look! This month, we are featuring North Carolina’s plastic-reducing businesses through our Instagram and blogs, and we’re excited to share these wonderful shops with you!

Today’s featured business is To The Brim, Asheville’s first refill and less-waste store. Their mission is to help reduce the amount of plastic waste in the surrounding community by offering refillable household cleaners and hygiene products as an alternative to buying (and throwing out) plastic containers for every purchase. They strive to stock a variety of more natural wares with listed ingredients so that customers can not only keep plastic out of landfills but feel good about the products they use. 

When visiting To The Brim, bring your empty containers to fill with shampoos/conditioners, all-purpose cleaners, lotions, laundry detergents, and more. They also offer a variety of other plastic-free packaged products like deodorant and lip balms in cardboard tubes, toothpaste tabs, and bamboo toothbrushes!

Owner Shelby Emerson fell in love with the concept of refill when working as a cleaner at a car dealership made her realize the overwhelming amount of plastic products required in our daily lives. With some inspiration from friends who opened a refillery of their own, To The Brim was born. Today, she emphasizes that anyone can make a difference with individual actions: “you don’t need to be a certain type of person to make the changes that will save the world!” Shelby also had some great additional insights to share – read on below.

Q: What is your favorite part about running To The Brim?

Shelby: My favorite part about running To the Brim is when customers come in and get excited to see all of the options and realize how much plastic they can actually cut out of their everyday routines.

Q: What advice would you give to someone getting started with living zero waste/plastic-free?

Shelby:  If you’re just getting started on your zero-waste journey, start with a small, easy change or new habit and work your way to making it second nature. Then choose another new habit and do the same thing. It may seem like these first baby steps won’t add up to much, but it can be time consuming and expensive to jump in head first, so it’s best to make changes over time. It also makes it easier to see which alternatives will work best for you.

Q: What vision do you have for the future of plastic?

Shelby: Plastic isn’t going to go away. We need it for medical use and it can do really important things that other materials just can’t do. Single-use plastics for every day objects, though, that’s where we have a problem. I think that making zero-waste options more accessible and easier to use will be the difference in seeing a scale-down of plastic production.

Q: Any other thoughts to share?

Shelby: I think your generation is going to be able to do some great stuff in the way of sustainability and getting the health of our planet back on track! It’ll be a tough job, but hopefully we older generations can help set you up for success. Thank you for your work!

As always, we love working with local businesses like To The Brim that keep our communities and our state moving toward a greener future. Don’t forget to follow @tothebrimrefill on Facebook and Instagram to stay updated!

All images from: https://www.tothebrimrefill.com/