Celebrating 3 Years Of Refill Service In Denver With Owner Dave Paco By Krysti Joméi In the heart of Denver’s Capitol Hill, you’ll find Off The Bottle Refill Shop, the neighborhood’s minimal waste refillery. Housed on the corner of the historic brick building on 13th Ave and Sherman, guests are welcomed in by a vibrant outdoor mural and artful windows lined with hanging sea glass bottles and a bounty of lush plants. Stepping through the often open door is like entering a portal to the old world, timetraveling around the globe and landing in the present. You’re transported to an apothecary meets sweet shop meets street market meets jungle to something altogether artfully new. Cleaners, shampoos, lotions, potions, soaps, detergents, salts, scrubs and jars line salvaged shelves and alley-rescued cabinets and tables, complete with handwritten detailed descriptions of each good and their respective maker information. Groovy deep cuts and world beats play over a sidewalk freebie sound system, inspiring visitors to explore the space intuitively. Knowledgable shopkeepers encourage interaction with the head-to-toe body products and home goods on display and offer help or guidance if needed from behind a beautiful handmade reclaimed white oak bar with semi-truck floorboard countertops. Hand-signed prints from local artists share the walls with upcycled wallpaper of life-size equatorial plants and the simple, yet boldly stenciled phrase, We Demand A Better Future. Owner Dave Paco took action on these No. 126 words when he opened Off The Bottle Refill Shop three years ago in the midst of the pandemic. Born out of frustration and disgust at the growing plastic waste and pollution problem, Dave and fellow Owner Daniel Landes set out with a mission to offer alternatives to singleuse plastic consumption. The result was a space dedicated to refilling customers’ already existing containers with non-toxic, sustainable home and body products. “The idea of the shop is really just creating a good energy space that can help people do good things with their shopping habits. A lot of what we do day-to-day is educational, talking to our guests about what it is we do in terms of trying to minimize waste, using already existing containers to bring home daily needs products — shampoo and conditioner, cooking oils and laundry detergents and dish soaps and teas and spices and sunscreen — and giving people the option to step away from that singleuse plastic or a single-use container. Every time you need shampoo, you’ve got to get a new bottle, a new pump and they don’t really get recycled. And so this is an experience for folks that are hoping to minimize their contribution to trash.” Guests are encouraged to bring in their own clean bottles, jars, bags, or boxes to have them filled with as much or as little high-quality, ecofriendly goods as they need, priced by the ounce in weight. There is also a large assortment of new glass, aluminum and stainless steel containers, pumps, and accessories available for purchase. But Off The Bottle takes the concept of reuse a step further by offering free jars. Part of their glass donation/freecycle program, they receive donated vessels which they then sanitize and remove any labels. “The intention is to keep them alive. When you start to use your containers over and over, you develop a relationship with them.
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