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A small Vienna shop has helped customers refill more than 36,000 containers in four years, offering Fairfax County a practical glimpse of what reducing dependence on disposable packaging could look like.

Trace owner Mala Persaud opened the store in 2021 after becoming frustrated by the amount of plastic and other single-use packaging piling up around her. Its shelves and dispensers carry household staples ranging from hand soap and vinegar to pasta and reusable bags.

Shoppers bring jars, bags or other containers, fill them with the amount they need and pay by weight. The model replaces many products that would otherwise come in new disposable packaging.

“We do it for the customers. We do it for the environment. I do it for future generations,” Persaud said.

Persaud, a former journalist who also works as a communications consultant, began exploring waste reduction after seeing people online attempt strict “zero-waste” lifestyles. Some managed to fit an entire year’s trash into a mason jar, but she wanted to offer a less extreme path.

Vienna appeared to be a natural location. Persaud lived in town and believed her neighbors would be interested in practical ways to reduce household waste.

Although Trace has recorded year-over-year growth, Persaud said progress has been slower than she expected. Changing routine shopping habits, particularly the widespread use of single-use packaging, remains difficult.

Fairfax County pursues a 2030 target

Fairfax County’s broader climate plan calls for achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 and “zero waste” by 2030. The waste goal includes diverting at least 90% of material from landfills and incinerators while cutting overall waste generation 25% from 2018 levels.

An update presented to the Board of Supervisors’ environmental committee in May 2025 showed that county government operations had reduced total solid waste by 38% as of 2023 compared with 2018.

The decline came with important qualifications. Waste fell substantially during the pandemic while many county employees worked remotely, then increased slightly in 2023 after more workers began returning to offices the previous year.

Officials say cutting waste can also reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Composting food scraps and yard debris limits the methane those materials produce in landfills, while recycling and reuse can reduce the energy required to extract resources, manufacture goods and transport new products.

Persaud argues that recycling and composting cannot carry the effort alone.

“The number one problem is that we’re all believing that recycling is enough,” she said. “And it is not.”

John Cook, a senior research fellow at the Melbourne Centre for Behaviour Change, said public messaging has often placed too much responsibility on individuals while minimizing the roles of government policy and industry.

Younsung Kim, a George Mason University professor of public policy and management, said individual choices still matter and can be influenced by policies such as bottle buy-back programs and plastic-bag taxes. Fairfax County introduced a 5-cent plastic-bag tax in 2022.

Such charges can prompt shoppers to question the extra expense and begin carrying reusable bags, Kim said.

Persaud wants consumers to think beyond recycling. She describes “reduce, reuse, recycle” as a hierarchy, with reducing consumption at the top and recycling at the bottom.

Trace attempts to make that approach manageable. Its liquid soaps, for example, arrive in five-gallon buckets. Once emptied, the buckets are cleaned and returned to their manufacturers for another refill, reducing packaging waste across the supply chain as well as in customers’ homes.

Small habits and broader policies

Refill shopping is not convenient for everyone. Northern Virginia has only a handful of stores like Trace, leaving many residents without easy access to alternatives to disposable packaging.

Catie Torgersen, sustainability program manager in Fairfax County’s Department of Public Works and Environmental Services, said residents can begin with attainable changes. Reusable lunch bags, declining straws and carrying reusable shopping bags can each become regular habits.

“It’s great if you can just stop using single-use plastic altogether, but that’s really, really hard,” Torgersen said. “If you can just pick one thing and try to make it a habit, that makes it a lot easier.”

Experts said meaningful progress will require both personal action and structural change.

Cook called regulation an important strategy for cutting fossil-fuel emissions. He also encouraged people to join local organizations, petition public officials and participate in collective action, arguing that public discussion can build momentum for political action.

Maggie O’Donnell, a project manager with the Global Consortium on Climate and Health Education at Columbia University, said the scale of climate change can be discouraging. But dismissing individual efforts as insignificant can prevent people from pursuing larger, longer-term work with their communities.

Persaud does not expect one shop or government program to solve the waste problem. She hopes Trace can meet residents wherever they are in the process and help them reconsider the packaging tied to everyday purchases.