‘We love our community’: Cheney refillery brings sustainable options to locals

Born into a military family and growing up on a homestead, a girl fell in love with the planet.

That girl was Scarlett Arlt, now 38, and also now the owner of the Evergreen Refillery in Cheney, along with her wife, 28-year-old Ash Arlt. The eco-centric store opened in June, around a year after Spokane Refillery closed doors. The Plant Project, another local shop with a refill station, announced it too was closing in early December.

“It is a concern, obviously, that people might not be interested,” Scarlett Arlt said. “However, that’s not been our experience in Cheney. People have been so interested and so loving and so embracing of the concept that business has only been good for us, and we’ve only had beautiful people come in.”

Right in the heart of downtown Cheney, the shop features dozens of pump-buckets filled with personal hygiene products, cleaning solutions and laundry detergents, allowing customers to refill existing containers. Donated glass jars are available for folks who do not have containers.

Locally sourced items including coconut sponges, beeswax wraps, dog shampoo and paw balm, reusable paper towels and bamboo toothbrushes are also available for purchase, displayed on thrifted shelves.

An upside-down bicycle hangs on the wall, Arlt calling it an “up cycle.”

Getting into an eco-friendly lifestyle can seem overwhelming at first, Scarlett Arlt said. It doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing change, though. She suggests trying out a coconut dish sponge.

“I dare you to see how long it lasts you versus using one of the plastic sponges that you can pick up from the grocery store,” she said. “And that’s sustainability. That’s it. You’ve done it. Great job.”

It’s not about being perfect, but instead learning what works best for individuals.

“The store is meant to be a place where you can come and know nothing about living an eco-life, and you’re not going to be judged no matter who you are, no matter where you come from,” Scarlett Arlt said.

That education is a key component of the business, she said. Even the name is designed to get people asking questions, many not knowing what a refillery is (some, Ash Arlt said, come in expecting marijuana or alcohol). They chose Cheney as a location due in part to affordability, but mainly because they live in the city.

People in Cheney usually stay in town when they can, rather than making the 15-or-so minute drive into Spokane, Scarlett Arlt said. Her family does, anyways, despite Ash Arlt working nights in Spokane as a paramedic.

“We get told so often this would have done great in Spokane,” Scarlett Arlt said. “Cheney deserves all the things too. And people in Cheney don’t leave Cheney. So by bringing an eco-friendly place to them, they’re more likely to come in and ask questions. They’re more likely to say, ‘What are you doing here? What’s going on?’ And that’s where that conversation comes in between things we can learn and things we already know.”

The Arlt couple and their two teenage sons moved to Cheney in 2020, largely in search of legal protections for queer families. Both Scarlett and Ash worked as paramedics in their Nebraska hometown, but one of their boys was being bullied in school for having two moms.

“And so we just knew we needed to get out,” Scarlett Arlt said. At the recommendation of her sister, “We just kind of moved here blindly, which is not unlike us – we like to, you know, live. And so we got here and we just fell in love with it. Oh my God, it’s so beautiful… the people, the land. There’s so many beautiful parks here.

“We had never really seen a population that were able to be so open about who they are, and it was just a beautiful feeling. You’re kidding me – you can just exist? That’s so cool.”

Ash Arlt has continued their work as a paramedic with American Medical Response for the five years they have lived in Cheney, while Scarlett initially worked in a microbiology lab at Spokane Community College. One day, Scarlett Arlt began passing out at work.

“And you can imagine that you can’t work in a microbiology lab if you’re spilling bacteria all the time,” she said, adding that she loved the job. “However, I just got more and more sick as time went on to where I was unable at one point to hold myself up.”

Doctors found that she had brain lesions and myriad other symptoms associated with chronic illness. Doctors do not know if the disease is progressive or on the up end after extensive treatment. Today, Scarlett Arlt relies on a wheelchair or walker on most days, though she is able to get around on her own.

“So I’m here, and I can do what I can do on days that I feel good,” she said. “And if I can’t, then I can sit there and have beautiful conversations with people.”

The flexibility of the business has allowed for the degree of recovery that Scarlett Arlt has made, she said. And on the flip side, it was in part the illness that allowed for the business – which is, of course, wheelchair accessible – to begin.

“I had been on the couch for months and months and months because I was sick and I was getting – I was like, I can do something. I can sit somewhere and do something.”

Ash Arlt remembers when Scarlett Arlt pitched the idea of the refillery in early 2025. It seemingly came out of the blue, Scarlett Arlt having talked in the past about running a bakery.

“I had just woken up, because I work nights,” they said. “And then she literally got up to shower, I heard the shower turn on, and then she comes out in a towel and is like, ‘I’m going to open a refillery.’”

A month later, she had put in the first order for bulk refills.

“I think we opened it up with a good mindset, too,” Ash Arlt said. “We sat down and talked about it. We were like, even if we don’t make money for us to bring home – we didn’t really care about that. We just wanted to bring something that we love in our house that has benefitted, like Brad our youngest son with psoriasis and Scarlett with all her allergies.”

Breaking even is the goal, Scarlett Arlt said.

“But even if it doesn’t, we’re just gonna be here because the community is beautiful. We love our community.”