Containers

The PET question

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The objection, stated fairly What the refill model actually changes Which makes durability the environmental specification And PET is genuinely good at this Weight is an environmental cost too Where glass genuinely wins HDPE is the quiet answer The honest position So sell the refill count, not the resin And do not claim what you cannot show References

324 of 485 are PET. Confronted rather than worked around.

The objection, stated fairly

Somebody shopping a zero waste category is usually trying to buy less plastic. A shelf that is two thirds PET looks like it has missed the point.

What the refill model actually changes

Not the material of the container, but the number of times it is used. A bottle filled fifty times is forty-nine bottles that were never made, whatever it is made of.

Which makes durability the environmental specification

The right question is how many fill cycles a container survives, not what resin it is. A PET bottle that lasts two years beats a glass one that breaks in a month.

And PET is genuinely good at this

Light to carry, hard to break, and it survives being dropped on a tiled bathroom floor by somebody with wet hands. Those are the failure modes a refill bottle actually faces.

Weight is an environmental cost too

A heavy container is freight on the way to the shop and effort for the customer carrying it back and forth. A refill bottle gets transported many more times than a single-use one.

Where glass genuinely wins

Anything oily, anything with essential oils, anything the customer wants on display, and anything that will be washed in very hot water. Two glass containers here, so we cannot serve that.

HDPE is the quiet answer

152 containers. More chemically tolerant than PET, squeezable, and the standard resin for household liquids. For a detergent or a cleaner it is usually the better choice.

The honest position

We sell plastic containers, and in a refill model the plastic container is doing the environmental work rather than undoing it. That argument holds only if the container lasts.

So sell the refill count, not the resin

A shop that tells a customer the bottle is designed for a hundred fills is making a claim the customer can check, which is better than a claim about the material.

And do not claim what you cannot show

Recyclability, recycled content and biodegradability are measurable properties with evidence behind them. If you have the evidence say it; if not, say what the container is and what it does.

References

The Davis Pack Supply catalog, measured 19 October 2026. The refill and zero waste shelf is 917 rows: 485 containers and 432 closures. 100 mL to 7,571 mL with a median of 237; 166 containers over a pint, 82 over a quart, 35 over two quarts and 23 over a gallon. 324 PET, 152 HDPE, 7 PP and 2 glass. 443 bottles, 15 jars, 15 tubs and pails and 12 jugs. 134 white, 111 clear, 76 amber, 54 natural. Closures: 268 continuous thread, 39 lotion pumps, 37 disc top, 15 flip top, 13 dome lids, 11 treatment pumps, 9 phenolic, 7 buttress, 7 round tubs, 5 foamer pumps, 5 liners and sealing discs. Necks: 194 at 24-410, 91 at 38-400, 51 at 28-410, 44 at 45-400.

Written from NIST Handbook 130, 2023 edition, and from the catalog as it stood on 19 October 2026. Handbook 130 is a compilation of model laws rather than federal law, and states adopt it in different forms, from different years, or not at all; the binding text is your state's. Nothing here concerns whether a scale is legal for trade, which is Handbook 44 and a state device approval, or the retail food rules for refilling a customer's food container, which belong to whoever licenses the shop.