Our Mission
Welcome to New Moon Refillery! We are Sami and Drue, a couple from Fargo, North Dakota. Our mission is to meet people where they’re at to help reduce the use of single-use plastics in the Denver Metro.
We know that so many people care for the environment, but might not have the time or resources to visit a refill shop in person. We want to help make it easier to access eco-friendly products!
Because of this, we started out as a delivery-only zero waste store. We have since expanded to include a retail location in the Arts District on Santa Fe in Denver and the Belmar Shopping District in Lakewood. You can come into one of our shops, or order online for delivery or pickup!
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Meet Sami Heller
“There are a lot of people who aren’t familiar with zero waste/refill shops, and most commonly they’ll take one look at our storefront or table at a market and say ‘It’s just soap,’ as they continue on by.
Every time I hear this, I want to say ‘It’s SO much more than ‘just soap.’’
Yes, we do have a lot of soap products, but they aren’t only for cleaning people—their main purpose is to clean up the planet. (Plus, we carry way more than soap!)
We partner with brands who take back their packaging for reuse, provide refillable products instead of single-use packaging, encourage practices that reduce overall consumption, and we pay extra money to responsibly recycle any plastic packaging we get with orders.”
Meet Sami Heller
“To make plastics, you need oil. To get oil, you have to extract it from the earth—emitting millions of tons of CO2 per year and stripping the land bare to lay pipelines. We take from the earth in this exploitative way just to make millions of plastic bottles of hand soap that go straight to a landfill.
This is the perspective I bring to reducing single-use plastics today. Why are we damaging the planet and using our precious resources in such wasteful ways?
I’ll be the first to say that plastic is necessary in many areas of our lives, such as the medical field. It’s also incredibly unnecessary in many parts of our lives, such as packaging.
So, let’s save our resources and carbon emissions for when we need them and find alternatives, like refill stores, for when we don’t.”
Exploring Life & Business with Sami Heller and Drue McLean of New Moon Refillery
“We think it’s important to mention that although we offer ways for individuals to reduce their impact on the planet, there are so many large systems at work in the world that harm the environment on a massive scale. It’s a tricky balance – holding large corporations accountable while also encouraging individuals to do what they can.
It’s okay to just do what you can. Even something as small as refilling your hand soap keeps plastic out of the landfill. Big impacts begin with small actions, and many people doing the best they can is more effective than a few people doing things ‘perfectly.’”