Daily Inspiration: Meet Alexa Hecksel

Today we’d like to introduce you to Alexa Hecksel. 

Alexa, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I started taking baby steps into a low waste lifestyle back in 2018. The untimely passing of my father left me thinking about what my impact on the world would be and I wanted it to be a positive one. You can be kind to the people you face in your everyday life, but what about the people you don’t see? The people who make your clothes, grow your food, the future generations? I realized that I could have positive impact on people I don’t even know by changing my habits and reducing my waste. I found it easier to purchase food without plastic packaging that will pollute the Earth, and clothes with a smaller environmental impact; however, it was more difficult to purchase personal care and home care items without chemicals and excessive packaging. I began researching low waste, eco-friendly products and was able to give suggestions to friend and family who asked. There was a gap in my community that I had the ability to fill and began working toward opening my refillery in 2020, in the middle of the pandemic. After reaching out to vendors who already worked with refilleries and introducing some local companies to the idea of it I launched my website in October of 2020 and started delivering in the Greater Lansing area with the help of my sister, Sally. We treated the deliveries like the kinds you would have gotten from the milkman. Customers would leave an empty container on their porch and we would trade that one out with a container full of the product that they ordered. 

That winter while I was walking around REO Town with my younger sister I saw a tiny storefront with an incredible octagonal window and told my sister that if that space ever became available, I’d love to have my refillery there. Less than a month later the owner of the shop next door, Jean Jean Vintage, who happened to be a customer, contacted me to let me know that the space I had my eye on was becoming available and that she thought Clean Refillery would do really well there. From there it was a whirlwind, but we opened our sweet storefront in April of 2021 and have been open to the public to refill ever since! 

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
We have experienced our fair share of bumps in the road, especially since we started in the middle of a global pandemic. Initially, I had wanted to just open our storefront, not just an online shop with local deliveries. I was having a hard time articulating to our community what exactly it was that we were doing and the service we provided. It makes a lot more sense when you can walk into our space, see the empty containers and scale, and the refill experts and I can talk through the process. In the end, opening online was absolutely for the best. I was able to build up my customer base before opening a storefront, and there’s no way I would have ended up in my dream space. There have also been major supply chain issues that affected our business. There was a stretch of time that we weren’t able to get our top-selling products back in stock because the supplier couldn’t get the ingredients. Everybody has noticed supply chain issues at the big box stores, but it affects small businesses in a different way. If we aren’t able to get a product, we can’t sell it and then we are out that income, especially when it is a popular product. 

Clean Refillery is also owned and operated by family. Unfortunately, when my sister and I got COVID-19 after the holidays, our other employee was also exposed because she is my sister’s roommate. We had to shut down the shop until our quarantine was complete. 

Even with these bumps in the road we’ve been extremely fortunate to experience such success in the middle of a time that has been very difficult for so many people. 

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I own and manage an eco-friendly refill store. These types of stores are newer, but the concept isn’t! Remember the bulk section at the grocery store? It’s kind of like that. We sell many of our products by weight. Customers are able to bring their own containers from home, take one off our cart of donated containers or purchase a new. We weigh that container, and after that, the customer can fill it with as much or as little product as they would like. We weigh the full container and subtract the weight of the container. Some of the products we offer are shampoo, conditioner, laundry detergent, dish soap, and glass cleaner. We also sell low waste alternatives like toothpaste tabs, period cups, glass straws, and reusable grocery bags. The whole reason we sell products this way is to reduce single-use waste. Why should we only use a container once and then recycle or throw it away? 

Of course, I’m extremely proud that I was able to open the shop during the pandemic, but I’m even prouder of some of the opportunities that the shop has created. The company that we purchase our laundry detergent, dish soap, and other household cleaners from is Fresh Coast Clean. Before our shop opened, they were not selling their products in bulk to refilleries. I had tried their product and loved that they were local and that they had really effective low toxin products. I explained what my shop would be doing to them and they agreed to give our partnership a shot! Now they’re in multiple refilleries across the state of Michigan. It’s so nice to be able to be able to support a local business and to be able to keep our products carbon footprint really low. I purchase 5 gal containers of laundry detergent from them. When that container is empty, I place a new order and they take the empty container back to refill and trade it for a full one. It’s really amazing to have a circular economy. 

Do you have any advice for those looking to network or find a mentor?
I was able to learn more about refilleries by visiting them! I took a trip to Toronto back in 2019 to research refilleries and how they worked. This was before there were any dedicated refilleries in Michigan or even in the Mid-West. When I went to Toronto, I visited close to 8 refilleries and took notes of the products that they carried, purchased products to test, and got to chat with the owners. Many of them were really gracious and gave me amazing advice. The community of refillery owners is very unique in that we are all working toward a common goal. Not just personal gain and benefit, but we want to see refilleries becoming a common thing that every community has. I think they were particularly helpful because I traveled so far to learn more. 

I’ve become friends with many of the other refillery owners in Michigan as well. It is really nice to have peers to bounce ideas and questions off of since it is still such an uncommon kind of shop. 

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: www.cleanrefillery.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cleanrefillery/
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/cleanrefillery
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCEYmjj5YM0T4G4vBzA2WCQ

Image Credits
Alexa Hecksel Photography
Steven Glynn Photography