Liquid personal-care products are sold almost exclusively in single-use plastic bottles
#00016
Shampoo, body wash and liquid soap are sold almost entirely in single-use plastic bottles that are rarely recycled. The format persists because plastic is cheap, light, unbreakable and water-resistant and supply chains are built around it, so nothing has displaced it.
#00019Refill systems are not durable unless they are more profitable than single-use plastic
Refill schemes that lean on consumer goodwill or regulation are fragile: goodwill stays niche, and regulation can be repealed and is fought by incumbents. A refill system only becomes permanent when it is genuinely more profitable for the operator than single-use plastic.
#00018Refill systems fail at the last mile
Bulk soap already moves between factories but never reaches consumers without single-use packaging. The last mile breaks on five fronts: contamination in reused containers, reverse logistics to clean them, messy dispensing, variable-quantity retail, and user friction.
#00017Liquid personal-care products are mostly water, wasting transport capacity when shipped
Shampoo and liquid soap are mostly water, often 70 to 90 percent by weight. Shipping ready-to-use liquid moves large volumes of water already available at the tap, wasting transport capacity and fuel and forcing the bulky single-use bottle the water weight requires.