A new local Philly business spins off of food trucks for mobile refill stations and other upcycled goods.

Have a hard time finding somewhere to fill up on goods for your low-waste life? There’s a new Philly business who will come to a location near you! 

Ray’s Reusables is a Philadelphia-based mobile refill station ( where you can stock up on items by bringing your own reusable container) and maker of up-cycled goods. Ray sells cleaning products, laundry detergent, and more.

The beginnings of Ray’s Reusables

When Ray Daly started her project over a year ago, she was just trying to find a way to salvage the fabric. “I had a bunch of jeans that would wear through the thigh and then I just couldn’t fix them,” said Daly. “And I felt like it was so much waste with that fabric, so I started repurposing them into all kinds of things.”

Using the sewing skills that she learned from spending summers with her championship quilter grandmother, Ray began making cutlery pouches out of her old jeans.

Starting a Zero Waste Biz mid-Pandemic

Daly had long aspired to start her own refillery, and then COVID-19 was the catalyst for finally materializing her dream. “When the pandemic struck, I saw more and more plastic being produced and being used in a single-use style for the purposes of sanitation. I just felt like I had to accelerate [my project].”

Daly chose to make her business mobile because she wanted to make sustainability accessible everywhere. As Daly explained, “I chose to keep it on wheels so that I can pop up in any community around Philadelphia and bring it to people rather than making them go to a place you know.” 

Daly doesn’t just make her business physically accessible but also conceptually accessible. “I really want to remove some of the barriers that people feel about reducing their waste.  There are a lot of misconceptions that people have like it has to be really difficult to get to, because there’s only Zero Waste or in a part of town that you don’t live in or that it has to be super expensive. I really want to work with people to make it approachable,” said Daly. 

Daly’s business has come up with unexpected challenges – like when she orders a product and it comes with excessive plastic packaging. But mostly, she’s been enjoying the creative challenges that arise. “There’s the very straightforward creativity, like sewing and physically making things, and I find that really rewarding.” 

If you want to check out Ray’s Reusables, you can catch her this month at Herman’s Coffee on Wednesday from 9 a.m. – 4 p.m., and Dickinson Square Pop-Up on Sunday, 12/27. See their full schedule here.

Featured Image from Ray’s Reusables.

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Katie Rodgers is a writer based on the East Coast working as an editorial intern for Green Philly. She's interested in sustainability, environmental activism, and documentary media. Before coming to Green Philly, Katie interned at WHYY. View all posts by Katie Rodgers