Spotlight: Mama and Hapa's

I was down in Portland for a brief visit to wish my friend A a happy birthday, when we stumbled across this cute Zero Waste shop "Mama & Hapa's". I'm excited to see more of these types of shops cropping up, just going to show the idea of more eco-friendly products is becoming more mainstream, which in turn should make them more affordable over time. 

This store's emphasis is on refillable bath and body and household cleaning products. Check out this wall of dispensers, which is just about 1/4 of the total dispensers they have.

M&H simplifies the process of refilling for you. You no longer need to tare your container or risk paying extra for the weight of your container. They use RFID cards to activate the dispenser which also track the amount of product you dispensed. Then the card is scanned at the register for easy checkout.

These sample hair conditioners show the set-up. The digital display shows the price per unit ($.39 and $.53/oz). You set the RFID card on the little wooden block, and your jar underneath the spigot. I was pleasantly surprised to see how affordable these were. For reference, my prior drugstore L'Oreal conditioner is going for $.23 - $.80/oz, depending on how large a bottle you get, so these products are comparable with no packaging, and no need to buy in huge quantities to realize a good price.

Watch this to see how easy it is:

After sampling some of the lotion, I was impressed with the quality as well - it absorbed well, leaving my skin silky, not greasy.

Beyond the refillable liquids section, M&H carries several other sustainable alternative products, and again the prices are fantastic. These laundry and dish detergent pods are super competitive at $.25 each, compared to $.28 / pod for Tide Pods and $.31 / pod for Cascade + Dawn dishwasher pods. They have both unscented and scented versions.

No packaging doesn't mean no labeling. Each product has a small paper slip you can take with directions and indegredients.

Don't have a container to use? Take from their free stash! Have 30 jars collected that you want to give a second life to? Donate for others to use!

Want to transfer your product from that spaghetti sauce jar into your decorative pump? They have a small funnel for that!

M&H also sells some other sustainable goods like swedish dishclothes, travel utensils, reusable straws, and bamboo toothbrushes.

Check them out at mamahapa.com or 2 locations in Portland, OR.