The Refillery campervan brings zero-waste home essentials to Northland communities

Leigh Bowness-Barker runs The Refillery mobile refilling station from her trusty campervan Daisy.

Northland’s first mobile refilling station is taking off, bringing eco-friendly home and body refill products into small rural communities dotted around the region.

Launched last October, with a grant from Te Tai Tokerau Impact Fund, The Refillery travels around offering to refill New Zealand-made products like laundry liquids, hand and body wash, and household cleaners.

Founder Leigh Bowness-Barker operates the new social enterprise from her campervan, Daisy, visiting 10 towns in the area; Dargaville, Ruawai, Tinopai, Maungaturoto, Paparoa, Kaiwaka, Mangawhai, Waipu, Waipu Cove, and Ruakākā.

“It’s going really well,” she said.

“I go to each of the stops every four weeks.

“When I go to a location the customers receive a text the night before to remind them I’m going to be there, and they call into the van with their containers and I refill them.”

Bowness-Barker’s passion for the environment started when she left her home in Yorkshire for her big OE trip to New Zealand, around 20 years ago.

In 2016, she immigrated permanently to New Zealand, first Auckland, then to Northland a couple of years later.

“I saw the magic in the place.

“Since moving here and having a connection to how unspoiled and beautiful and pristine the place is compared to my home country ... it’s untouched almost, and I want to preserve that.”

The idea for a mobile refilling station was sparked because, living in Paparoa, Bowness-Barker had “no facilities whatsoever”.

The closest filling stations were Bin Inn shops in Whangārei and Dargaville which meant a 90-minute round trip.

“I was using plastic after plastic, and getting fed up with how much plastic was going through my household.

“I thought I can’t be the only person frustrated with this situation.

“So I canvased people I knew around here and did research into what people thought about recycling and refilling and sustainability.”

Bowness-Barker, who had been helping her husband with his scaffolding business, timed her own business launch for Recycling Week, a nationwide campaign to promote responsible recycling habits across the country.

Leigh Bowness-Barker (left) with customer Hayley Dowling in Kaiwaka, one of her many stops.

She kitted out her campervan with shelves, and stocked them with New Zealand-made products that are chemical and cruelty-free.

Customers bring their own clean bottles or jars, and she has spares available for sale in the van.

The business is not only cost effective – as customers are only paying for the weighed product not the packaging - it also reduces overall waste.

“All my prices are cheaper than buying from the supermarket, even when they’re on special,” she said.

“I don’t have a massive markup.

“They’re not paying for plastic, they’re coming to refill their bottles so there needs to be an incentive to do that.”

Bowness-Barker has encouraged people to “be mindful about how you shop”.

Her vision is to “have lots of refillery vans travelling around New Zealand serving all the communities”.

“I’ll never be a multimillionaire, I’m not interested in that.

“It’s about getting people to change the way they shop to be more mindful of taking a bottle off the shelf and chucking it in the bin.”

Jenny Ling is a senior journalist at the Northern Advocate. She has a special interest in covering human interest stories, along with finance, roading, and social issues.