Who We Are
We're your neighborhood refill store!
Green Life Trading Co. is a sustainability focused store specializing in bulk goods and green products for home and personal care. We offer a wide variety of items from shampoos to laundry detergents to hair styling gel that are available in-store or online where you can sample itty bitty amounts or go big and buy bunches.
Our Story
Green Life Trading Co. was founded in October of 2018 with the mission to be a one stop shop for all things zero waste. Our storefront on Williamson Street in Madison, WI opened in the spring of 2020 and expanded product offerings to become Madison’s premier bulk refill store. We’ve been busy ever since organizing community events, piloting our compost drop off program and stocking our space with local soaps and natural cleaning products that keep our shop smelling fresh and wonderfully delicious.
What We Believe
“We don't need a handful of people doing zero waste perfectly, we need millions of people doing it imperfectly”
– Anne-Marie Bonneau AKA The Zero Waste Chef
What We Do
Products
Reduce Your Waste
We provide eco-friendly swaps for conventional plastic-heavy consumable items. When items from our shop reach their end of life, their main components are either compostable or recyclable. Concentrated, refillable and sustainable products from our shop are sent from us to you with offset carbon emissions and post consumer packing materials.
services
Sick of needless single use plastic?
Us too. We love connecting people with low-waste resources and provide services such as in-house composting to help divert materials from landfills and mending repair for knit garments. Our mission is to bring a sense of eco-friendly ease into caring for yourself and for the planet.
All About Refilling
how to
Bring your own clean and dry container, purchase one of ours or grab a free donated jar.
- Weigh your empty container
- Fill your container
- Pay (don’t worry, we do all the math)
Already have a perfectly reusable container at home?
Order a refill pouch. Refill pouches arrive with a pre-paid return mailer to send back once you've emptied the pouch into your container. When we receive the pouch, we'll sanitize and refill it for our next happy refiller.
Our soft, yet sturdy, refill pouches use 93% less plastic than your traditional plastic bottle. Since you’re sending them back to us—free of charge—we’re using the pouches time and time again.
Lightweight and malleable enough to flatten, our pouches are returned in small recyclable envelopes, helping us reduce carbon emissions.
How To Refill: A Comprehensive Guide
As our friends at Dip put it, refill is the new record store. Our shop, along with refill locations around the country, are fantastic hubs. From eco-friendly products to the...
Refill in store
or online
Refill Faq
We are not categorically anti-plastic. That would be silly, plastic—in the right application—is an incredible material! We are anti single-use plastics when desigend for the rituals we do daily!
Our soft, yet sturdy, refill pouches use 93% less plastic than your traditional plastic bottle. Since you’re sending them back to us—free of charge—we’re using them time and time again.
Light weight and malleable enough to flatten, our pouches are shipped a in small envelope, helping us reduce carbon emissions. This is the most environmentally friendly way to ship liquids.
We love an old peanut butter jar for in store filling but we don’t ship our refills in glass for two reasons. Firstly, its heavy! Shipping accounts for nearly 3% of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. While we do offset our shipping emissions, the smaller and lighter we can make our packages the better they are for the environment. Secondly, glass is breakable and we don’t want to ruin a mailperson's day.
No need to rush the return. You can even keep a pouch or two under the sink as your personal at home refill station! But please, return your pouch eventually so we can use it again!
You do not need to deep clean your pouch before returning it but our team does appreciate a quick rinse.
Our paper refill bags are compostable and recyclable, just be sure to remove the metal tin tie.
Shipping
Carbon offsets
The waste we create isn't always as visible as a single use plastic bottle, that's why we've partnered with Shopify Planet to offset our shipping emissions. When you place your order, Shopify Planet automatically calculates your shipping emissions and ensures high-quality carbon removal to neutralize your shipping footprint.
Reused Materials in every order
Biodegradable Packing Peanuts
Reused Materials
Materials
Since day one, as part of our mission to operate low-waste, we've avoided purchasing a single box or filler. As quickly as boxes and biodegradable packing peanuts arrive to the shop via orders and supplies, they go back out the door to you, our amazing, earth minded community.
Orders are secured with two types of tape, Washi and Packing Tape. Both are printed with soy-based ink and are home compostable and curbside recyclable.
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