By: Allyson Reynolds

The footer of a sewing machine snaps into place with fabric to cushion its fall. Her glasses droop away from her fixated eyes as she rotates the fabric, stitching a circular pattern. After this process is complete, she places a reusable menstruation pad on a shelf to be sold.

A variety of sustainable products, from reusable paper towels to earrings, are scattered throughout Totally Taylored, Athens, Georgia’s first refillery shop.

Less than a mile away, customers grab at the rows of endless plastic, packing their grocery carts with materials that will soon be sent to landfills. To combat plastic waste, refill shops have proliferated to promote zero-waste living, generating very little or no waste. But one refill store owner, Taylor Ooley, takes a different approach to sustainable living.

Instead of products being bought in single-use plastic, refillery shops carry products in bulk for customers to fill into reusable containers. Many refillery shops, like Totally Taylored, operate on a closed-loop system, meaning they send the packaging of the bulk product back for another fill.

The United States produced 44 million metric tons of plastic waste in 2019, according to a U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) press release. The study also found that only about 5% of the discarded plastic in the U.S. was recycled, and landfills received 86% of the plastic.

From September to the end of last year, Ooley said the store sold 216 refills and has already sold 167 refills this year. That is 383 containers diverted from landfills.

Although Ooley mainly receives positive feedback about her shop, she said she sometimes gets criticism from people who are “overly indulged in the zero-waste community,” calling the community “very full of shame and scare tactics.”

Totally Taylored brushes against the wave of refill shops that add the zero-waste ideal. She said the zero-waste movement limits the idea of a sustainable lifestyle. Totally Taylored brings two seemingly opposing concepts together: accessibility and sustainability.

“It’s a space for all sorts of people… at any point in their sustainability journey,” Ooley said.

Ooley said Totally Taylored started unintentionally.

Living with her boyfriend and cat in a one-bedroom home in Athens, Georgia, Ooley blogged about fast fashion and said it felt unrealistic to live sustainably with limited space and resources. After visiting her mom in 2019, her mindset changed.

Ooley found bolts of canvas fabric her mom planned to throw away. She was determined to use it, but there was one problem: she did not know how to sew. After years of her mom asking to teach Ooley to sew, she finally said yes.

Together, using the cloth, they made a tote bag, which her mom still cherishes today. Then, it was Ooley’s turn.

She laid out a cream and blue striped fabric and started stitching. She said she sold this no-pocket, “nothing fancy” bag on Etsy. After asking the buyer why he purchased it, Ooley found he liked the bag because it was made from secondhand fabric. She then created more pieces to sell online on her $25 second-hand sewing machine, gifted by her mom. Last July, she opened Totally Taylored in Bottleworks. 

Now, the morning sun glimmers through a rainbow of thread perched on her windowsill. The glow reveals a row of pumps labeled makeup remover, hand soap, dish soap, laundry concentrate, shampoo and conditioner.

At the front of the store, a letterboard displays three steps: weigh the container, fill it and weigh it again. This method ensures the weight of the container will not impact the price. If a customer does not bring a container, community jars are provided from donations.

Before Ooley hired Amber Sumners last December, Sumners shopped at Totally Taylored to buy sustainable products when her family downsized into a camper.

“You can be sustainable where you are. It just takes those little changes,” Sumners said. “It’s not some… zero-waste monster breathing down your neck.”

By prioritizing inclusivity, Totally Taylored challenges the inflexible standards of the zero-waste movement. Sumners uses Totally Taylored as a sustainable teaching tool for her seven-year-old son and says refilling makes him more conscious about his everyday consumption. Sumners said it is important to teach children about sustainability to promote the longevity of homes.

“If we don’t do it, the pattern just continues,” Sumners said. “If enough of us make small changes, those small changes turn to big changes.”

Ooley plans to grow her business by creating a production-style extension. This plan will allow her to make her own products, supply jobs in Athens, and reduce her carbon footprint. 

With a degree in communications from the University of Georgia, Ooley said she uses her acquired skills to build relationships with her customers. One way she does this is by sharing blog posts to make sustainability and business content more understandable.

“There’s so much gatekeeping…, but it just doesn’t matter to me to like keep those things private because there’s just more power in sharing,” Ooley said.

In “6 Things I’ve Learned in Owning a Retail Store for 6 Months” post, Ooley permits readers to look into the often hidden realities of owning a retail business. Ooley said collaboration with an experienced refill owner helped her better prepare and succeed today.

Ooley says new and experienced refillery owners must collaborate for refill shops to successfully grow, and, by redirecting consumer purchasing habits, refillery shops can redefine shopping norms and create a more sustainable future.