Chappaqua resident Jessica Paschkes”™ entrepreneurial endeavor Refillery has found a niche as Westchester’s first zero-waste pop-up business that provides consumers with nontoxic options for refilling soaps and cleaners without packaging waste. However, she insists that credit for the idea is not hers for the taking.
“This is not a concept I’ve invented, by any means,” she said. “It’s a concept that exists in other countries. We”™re probably about five years behind.
“I had come across this concept a couple years ago through a Canadian shop that I had seen and read about,” she continued. “It was like a lightbulb hit. I thought, ”˜This is brilliant: you bring your own container and you refill your products instead of bringing home new packaging.”™”
However, Paschkes put the concept on the proverbial back burner and focused on her career as a photographer, admitting “life happens.” But during the Covid-19 pandemic, she began re-evaluating her ideals and goals and decided to go forward with Refillery.
Paschkes”™ customers primarily focus on getting container refills for soap and cleaners for home and hygiene.
“I wanted to start with the necessities for cleaning and break it down into categories of kitchen, laundry and personal care,” she explained.
Paschkes pointed out that Refillery plays a role in reducing plastic waste and excess packaging, noting that 90% of plastic winds up being trashed and is usually dumped into the ocean. With Refillery, Paschkes”™s consumers refill plastic packaging or provide glass bottles and jars for their soaps and cleaners.
As for the products, Paschkes acknowledged she tests and curates them rather than making them herself.
“I have high standards in finding the stories behind the brands as well, because I think that’s important,” she said. “I work with a lot of female-owned businesses and I can tell their story and convey that to my customers.”
Paschkes has made her product line available via pop-up retailing within existing businesses and at farmers”™ markets; she is particularly grateful to be accepted into regional farmers”™ markets as those venues “are not easy to get into” ”” especially for a business that is not agriculturally focused.
She had her first sales exposure in May at a farmers”™ market in Rockland County and later expanded her presence into Westchester. Her next engagements were scheduled for the Pure Barre fitness center in Mount Kisco on Nov. 14 and the farmers’ market at the Chappaqua train station on Nov. 20.
In addition to her pop-up retailing, Paschkes is selling products on her website”™s e-commerce page what she calls “eco-swaps,” which includes personal care, kitchen and laundry products that she calls “things that we just use and toss. These are sustainable, reusable and better for the environment.”
At the moment, Paschkes is running Refillery as a one-woman enterprise that she is operating alongside her photography business, admitting the latter is “a bigger revenue-generator because there are no product costs ”” it’s just a service.”
Looking ahead to 2022, she hinted at having “some things in the works and hoping to come up with a bigger umbrella concept where it could be different businesses all kind of under that same idea of sustainability and a whole equal lifestyle ”” like a one-stop kind of experience in your home, your wellness and in your health.
“I don’t want to just rely on refills and cleaning products,” she added, “because I have a bigger vision for where the business can go.”
