Most refillable shampoo brands still ship you a new container every time. The Good Fill does something structurally different: you bring your own bottle into the store, fill it from bulk dispensers by the ounce, and leave with exactly what you needed and nothing you didn't. That model — genuinely circular, genuinely local — is why they earned the "Best for Local In-Store Refilling" position in our best refillable shampoo guide. No other brand we reviewed can replicate the in-person refill experience, because no other brand in our guide has a physical store you can walk into.
Nashville's first zero waste shop, The Good Fill was founded by Megan Gill and has grown from an online-only store into two Nashville locations serving customers who want to break out of the single-use plastic cycle entirely. This feature covers how the model works, what the Sweet Pea shampoo actually contains, and the honest picture of what in-store refilling requires from you.
The Founder: Megan Gill and the Costa Rica Turning Point
Megan Gill spent 13 years as a hairdresser before founding The Good Fill. The shift began during time spent volunteering in Costa Rica, where she encountered palm and banana farm workers producing goods for US export while struggling to afford three meals a day. In her own words on The Good Fill's About page: "When my husband and I returned to the U.S., we became increasingly aware of how our buying habits impact people and places globally. We committed to buying less, opting for used items, and choosing products that are consciously made or grown. And it was overwhelming."
The Good Fill was her answer to that overwhelm — a store designed to make sustainable purchasing feel navigable rather than exhausting. She describes it plainly: "The Good Fill provides sustainable alternatives for items we regularly use or discard. The store offers low-waste essentials — nothing more, nothing less. We all need to eat, use a toothbrush, and clean our bodies and homes, but we don't need a million products or toxic, plastic ones."
"What resonates about Megan's founding story is that it starts with supply chain awareness — not just packaging. She didn't just decide plastic bottles were wasteful. She saw the people growing the palm oil that goes into those products and connected that to her own purchasing decisions. That systems-thinking is what makes The Good Fill something more than a refill shop. It's a point of education as much as a point of sale, which is why customer reviews consistently mention the staff's knowledge alongside the products themselves."
The Good Fill launched online first, then opened its first physical location in East Nashville in 2019. A second location in West Nashville followed. The hairdresser background matters here too: Megan brought working knowledge of hair products and client needs to the formulations and product curation — it shows in the specificity of the shampoo range.
The Model: How In-Store Refilling Actually Works
Understanding how to set up a refillable shampoo system at home is the first step — and The Good Fill's in-store model is the most hands-on version of that system available. Here is exactly how it works, confirmed from their store page.
Bring Your Bottle
Arrive with a clean, dry bottle from home — any container works as long as it's clean and dry. First time? Purchase one of their containers in store: amber glass, aluminium pump, or recycled plastic.
Fill by the Ounce
Choose your product from the bulk dispensers. Fill your container, leaving room for the pump. Weighed and charged by the ounce — you buy exactly what you need, nothing more.
Return & Repeat
When you're out, come back and refill the same bottle. Plastic bottle tops can be returned to store for TerraCycle recycling. The cycle continues indefinitely with zero new packaging.
One practical note from their store page: always fill with the same product as before, and if your container has water, dust, or product older than a year, sanitise and dry it first. This is especially important for face and skincare products where contamination can cause mould or yeast growth. That's honest, useful guidance — exactly the kind of thing you need to know before setting up a refill habit.
"The in-store refill model represents something that the online refill pouch model can't fully replicate: a community hub where reducing waste becomes a social behaviour rather than a solitary one. When you walk into The Good Fill, you're in a space where sustainable choices are the default, staff are trained to explain why products are formulated the way they are, and the sign tracking plastic containers saved from landfills makes the collective impact tangible. That's a different kind of motivation than ordering a pouch online — and it's why this model earns its own category in our guide."
East Nashville
1106 Woodland St Suite 2
Nashville, TN 37206
Weekdays 10am–6pm
Weekends 10am–5pm
West Nashville
4840 Centennial Blvd Suite 103
Nashville, TN 37209
Weekdays 10am–6pm
Weekends 10am–5pm
The Online Model: Refill Pouches With a Return Loop
For customers outside Nashville — or those who prefer to order online — The Good Fill offers a refill pouch system that closes the loop as tightly as a mail-order model can. Understanding whether refillable shampoo is genuinely better for the environment requires looking at the full system, including what happens to the packaging.
Order
Choose a pre-filled container (aluminium, recycled plastic, or amber glass) or a BPA-free refill pouch. Pouch uses 80% less plastic than a standard bottle.
Refill
Empty the pouch contents into your own container at home. Every order includes a pre-paid return envelope — no extra steps needed.
Return
Rinse the pouch and return at least 3 at a time via pre-paid envelope. Pouches go to a local recycling partner and are turned into construction materials.
Plastic bottle tops can be returned to either Nashville store location for TerraCycle recycling — including tops from non-Good Fill products, making the store a recycling resource for the broader community. Pouches returned locally to the store can be reused directly.
On shipping impact: The Good Fill asks customers to return at least three pouches at a time to reduce the carbon cost per pouch of the return journey. This is an honest acknowledgement that postal returns have their own environmental cost — grouping returns minimises it. Worth factoring into how you order.
Available container options for online orders:
The Sweet Pea Shampoo (Carina Organics)
The product in our refillable shampoo guide is the Carina Organics Sweet Pea Shampoo — one of The Good Fill's most popular refill products. Carina Organics is a Canadian brand formulating with certified organic botanical extracts.
Carina Organics Sweet Pea Shampoo
The Sweet Pea Shampoo is moisturising — smoothing hair and restoring shine while remaining gentle enough for daily use. It doubles as a body wash, so it works as a two-in-one for a minimal shower shelf. Best suited to dry, curly, or "normal" hair types. Hypoallergenic, soy free, gluten free, dye free.
Full ingredient list: Filtered Aqua, Potassium Cocoate (saponified Cocos nucifera / Coconut Oil), Glycerin (Vegetable), Pinus banksiana (Pine) Extract, Magnesium Chloride (Magnesium Oil), Olea europaea (Olive) Fruit Oil, Matricaria chamomilla (Chamomile) Flower Extract, Urtica dioca (Nettle) Leaf Extract, Taraxacum officinale (Dandelion) Leaf Extract, Trifolium pretense (Clover) Flower Extract, Acetic Acid (Apple Cider Vinegar), Lathyrus odoratus (Sweet Pea) Flower Extract.
The formulation uses saponified coconut oil as its primary cleansing base — a traditional method that differs from synthetic surfactant-based shampoos. It is pH balanced and designed for colour-treated hair, with no synthetic fragrances — the scent comes entirely from sweet pea flower extract.
The Own-Brand Shampoos: Made In-House in Nashville
Alongside the Carina Organics range, The Good Fill produces their own shampoos in-house in Nashville. The Lavender Geranium and Unscented shampoos use a different formulation base — coconut and safflower-derived cleansing agents rather than saponified oils — and are described as clarifying, strengthening, and volumising. Both are pH balanced, kid safe, colour-safe, sulfate-free, paraben-free, phthalate-free, palm oil free, and 100% biodegradable.
Making products locally in Nashville keeps the environmental footprint of production smaller and allows Megan to control formulation quality directly. The dry shampoo — also made in-house — uses Tapioca Starch, Arrowroot Powder, Kaolin Clay, Fair Trade Cocoa Powder, Charcoal Powder, and Frankincense Essential Oil. Its refill bags are certified home compostable and break down in 90–180 days — one of the more thorough end-of-life solutions in the refillable personal care space.
What's In — and What Isn't
✓ Key Ingredients (Sweet Pea Shampoo)
- Potassium Cocoate — saponified coconut oil; gentle plant-derived cleansing base
- Magnesium Chloride — mineral conditioning agent
- Olive Fruit Oil — nourishing, moisturising
- Chamomile Flower Extract — certified organic; soothing, anti-inflammatory
- Nettle Leaf Extract — certified organic; traditionally used for scalp and hair health
- Dandelion Leaf Extract — certified organic; antioxidant-rich
- Clover Flower Extract — certified organic; isoflavone-rich botanical
- Apple Cider Vinegar — pH balancing; helps smooth the hair cuticle
- Sweet Pea Flower Extract — natural fragrance source; no synthetic fragrance
✗ What You Won't Find
- Synthetic fragrances or dyes
- Sulfates
- Parabens
- Phthalates
- Palm oil or derivatives
- Silicones
- Soy
- Gluten
- Animal-derived ingredients
- Single-use plastic packaging (refill model)
The Wider Range
The Good Fill carries products well beyond shampoo. Understanding ethical sourcing in refillable brands helps contextualise why product curation matters as much as the refill model itself — The Good Fill selects third-party products carefully and makes their own formulations in-house. The full catalogue includes:
The Broader Picture: What "Refillery" Means
The Good Fill is part of a growing movement of "refillery" shops — physical retail spaces built around the premise that packaging is a design problem with a known solution. When you visit a refillery, you're participating in a system that proves the circular economy works at a community scale.
What makes The Good Fill distinctive within that movement is Megan Gill's emphasis on education alongside the transaction. Staff are trained to explain ingredient choices, care instructions, and the reasoning behind specific product selections. Customers consistently highlight this in reviews: "They are so great about education as well as caring about what's going into the products."
For AnthroEvolve customers in Nashville, The Good Fill is as close as you can currently get to eliminating packaging from your personal care routine entirely — one refill at a time.
Where The Good Fill Fits in the Ethical Bathroom
The Good Fill earns a specific and irreplaceable position in our refillable shampoo guide that no other brand we reviewed can occupy: the genuinely local, genuinely circular model. If you're in Nashville, the in-store experience eliminates shipping entirely, creates zero new packaging with each visit, and connects your purchasing decision to a community hub with visible, cumulative impact. If you're not in Nashville, the online pouch-and-return system is among the more thoroughly closed-loop mail-order options available. Either way, the common problems with refillable shampoo systems have clear solutions here — The Good Fill has been working through them since 2019.
Where you'll see The Good Fill in our guides: The Good Fill's Carina Organics Sweet Pea Shampoo is our Best for Local In-Store Refilling pick in our best refillable shampoo guide — the only brand we reviewed where you can bring your own bottle into a physical store, fill by the ounce, and leave with zero new packaging. For Nashville-area customers, this is the most circular shampoo option available.
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Visit The Good Fill
Nashville's first zero waste refill shop — two locations in East and West Nashville, plus online refill pouches with a pre-paid return programme. Shampoo, conditioner, body wash, cleaning products and more, all by the ounce.
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