Ex-producer finds ‘wheel’ power to make zero-waste lifestyle easier

MALAYSIANSKINI | After years of working in the entertainment industry as a producer and later film distributor, Oh Sok Peng gave it all up and found a new lease on life by starting her own business, Refiller Mobile.

The 44-year-old, who hails from Ipoh, Perak, and has been living in Petaling Jaya for 20 years, now sells eco-friendly household products such as detergents, liquid soap, toothpaste, personal care products, as well as dried food snacks (nuts and dried fruits), pet food and eco-friendly bags and daily essentials out of the back of her modified 30-year-old Toyota Liteace van.

Refiller Mobile is currently a one-woman show and Oh covers several areas in Petaling Jaya by appointment.

“I was thinking about how to make it convenient for people and encourage them to reuse their plastic containers. I thought the Refill Mobile would be more accessible and convenient for people and also make them more open to the idea.

“It is also to reduce our carbon footprint. It makes no sense to go to one place and serve one family. I look at it as if 10 people drove to a shop, and there is 10 times the carbon footprint. If I go to a place and serve 10 customers, I actually can cut down on nine of these carbon footprints. To me, it makes a lot of sense,” Oh told Malaysiakini.

Oh recalled how she used to the store and go to bring her plastic containers. Then, of course, there were the notorious traffic jams and parking woes to deal with.

Essentially, her Refiller Mobile is taking away the hassle of going to a store to refill your detergent and soaps.

Appointments and updates on Refiller Mobile can be viewed via its Instagram or Facebook page.

The neighbourhoods that she services have a representative who arranges an appointment for her to come there, and she can provide refills for several customers at a time. Right now, she caters to about 50 neighbourhoods.

“Because this is a social enterprise, I do not make enough to bring in a partner to share the profits. Once I have worked out a strong system and built a strong customer base, only then can I consider having a partner.”

Drastic career change

So, why the drastic change in career? Oh said her body could not take the strain of long hours spent on shootings. She decided to take a break and when an offer to work at the distribution department was presented to her, she took it, and she was at the job for five years.

But the entertainment industry came to a halt when the global pandemic hit. With plenty of free time on her hands, Oh figured she could do something useful.

“I got to know about Zero Waste Malaysia in 2021. I practice zero waste, but I did not know there was a community out there. I learned everything about zero waste from what I read online. When you do it alone, it gets lonely. You don’t know if you are doing it right. When I came to know Zero Waste Malaysia, I learned about their everyday challenge. So, I took it up,” said Oh.

She wanted to be part of the community so that she could polish up on what she knew about living a zero-waste lifestyle. To learn more, she volunteered to work with Zero Waste Malaysia to educate more Malaysians.

“I was also looking for something else to sustain me for the next ten years. Distribution is a great job, but it requires a lot of travelling. Although I barely travelled for two years during the pandemic, I knew once things reopened, there would be a lot more travelling, and the health risks would still be there. So, I decided to look for something else,” Oh explained.

It just so happened that she got herself a van for her birthday in May this year and it took one month for her to renovate the van and get suppliers for her new endeavour.

“It was all about the timing. After taking part in the 30-day Zero Waste challenge, I wrote to them and told them that I had time and I wanted to volunteer. I already quit my job and was searching for things to occupy my time,” explained Oh.

Then she saw an advertisement for a van on sale.

“I felt I needed to get the van. So, I texted the owner. They were not convinced because they weren’t sure if I could drive a manual van and there was no power steering. They wondered if I knew how to take care of a van. I had to drive to Rawang to meet them and convince them that I could take care of the van and put it to good use. I even shared my plans with them,” Oh recalled.

Once she got the van, a friend helped her with the modification so it can fit all the containers and still give Oh a place to sit comfortably and do the refilling.

“I get my main supply from KitaRefill. They have a store in Damansara Kim. They have been around for 10 years even before zero waste lifestyle became a thing. So, I approached them and told them my plan. They happily supported me,” said Oh.

She needed to get special containers with pumps to help her dispense the eco-friendly essential household items, which are produced by KitaRefill in a lab.

“It is environmentally friendly and kind to our skin,” added Oh.

She also contacted small-scale businesses that supplied vegan-friendly products. The snacks such as dried fruits and nuts are sourced from factories, and they are all halal.

Her customers are made up of both locals and expatriates.

“I even have expatriate customers who set up a tea corner where they can have tea while waiting for their containers to be refilled.”

She also has some volunteers who gather pre-order lists and send them to her so that she can bring enough stock to the location. She also goes to schools and universities to talk about zero waste.

She has also been invited to Bursa Malaysia on Dec 5 as part of their International Volunteer Day.

Good for the soul

Oh said she has no regrets about switching careers and feels that her past career has helped her build her confidence and ability to communicate with others easily.

She does, however, wish she had known about Zero waste much earlier and thinks that if she did, she might have gotten into it much earlier.

“People want to do it, but there is no convenient option for them. For them to drive to a zero-waste store is tedious because it takes time, and you have to put up with traffic and a lack of parking space.

“Throwing away your containers is easy. When you throw away your plastic containers, they will land somewhere, maybe they will end up just next to your house,” said Oh, referring to landfills.

According to the facts that Oh unearthed, a person disposes of 1.2kg of waste per day. Imagine how much they dispose of in a week or a year and multiply that by the number of people who live in the country.

In a week, the amount of rubbish discarded by Malaysians can be as high as the twin towers. So, imagine the amount of rubbish in a year.

When there is no space in landfills, jungles will be bulldozed for more dumping grounds and when plastic breaks down it can seep into our water system.

“What we throw away will eventually come back to us,” says Oh.

There is no doubt that her previous job gave her a better salary and was more stable.

“But this job is good for the soul,” she said.

She admitted to the job being not easy and labour intensive, but all that is worth it when many people thanked her for her service.

“It is so much more fulfilling. I know that every time I drive, I’m doing more for the environment.

“I’m so much happier now,” she concluded.

Model won't let vitiligo get in the way of her dreams

Meet the stroke survivor behind Kafe Basikal Tua

Hailing from Ipoh, Ranjinder now heads Hollywood PR firm

KINIGUIDE | What is a climate emergency and why does it matter?

Local environmental group's zero-waste quest goes global

Tough for Malaysia to meet zero single-use plastic target by 2030 – expert