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.

Dove Does It!

Deodorant is one of the most disappointing products, when you compare the amount of product relative to the amount of container/dispenser. A few years ago, I wrote to Secret, stating I loved their deodorant, but not all the plastic packaging. Couldn't we find a solution? After all, companies like Loop are working on the milkman model, with reusable/refillable packaging. And there are many natural deodorants that come is a compostable cardboard pushpop-style tube, but unfortunately, I don't find many of these products as effective as their national brand counterparts.

Well, Dove is now doing it! A couple months ago, I saw a press release stating Dove would now have refillable deodorant at Target, and this week, I finally spotted it at the Target nearest to me! Wahoo!! You have to love when these large national brands and retailers start coming on this journey with us. :-)

Here's the details:

It comes in 3 scents (unscented, cucumber & green tea, and coconut & pink jasmine), and it appears to be the same formula as their other 0% aluminum deodorants. 

There are simple instructions to twist the refill onto the base.

The case is stainless steel, and the plastic holding the refill is post-consumer plastic.

While not entirely plastic-free, check out the amount of plastic on the refill, compared to the plastic from traditional packaging. It's 54% less plastic, and 98% post-consumer.

What I also enjoy is, once you take the lid off, you can see the entire deodorant stick. No more guesswork about how much is left, or doing a click each day to expose more.

This swap does cost a bit more than its traditional counterpart, and hopefully the costs will come down as this system becomes more normalized. It's similar in concept to shaving razors, where you can get a reusable handle and replaceable heads. 

A starter kit contains the stainless steel base and lid, along with your first deodorant, for an initial investment of $15. You can get 2-pack refills for $10. This means the permanent base costs $10, and each deodorant is $5. This compares to $3 for the traditionally-packaged Dove deodorant of the same size (1.6 oz). Learn more from Dove here.

Seeking an antiperspirant and not just a deodorant? It looks like Secret did in fact come out with a refillable system too, and theirs contains no plastic at all, with their refill pod coming in a cardboard tube. It's available in Target and Walmart as well, with the starter kit at $10 and refills at $8. Current scents are lavender for the starter pack, and lavender and rose for refills. 

Kudos to both companies for making better solutions available!

September Digest

With all my online thrifting during COVID, I've finally hit my limit for clothes shopping. The closet is full and I'll need to be extra purposeful with my shopping list. Whoops! For the next couple months at least, I'm redirecting my focus to other activities, like packaging reduction, food waste reduction, and DIY reuse projects. Here are a few of the things I've been up to this month: 

1) Reuse/upcyle: I did make an exception about thrifting to finish my Halloween costume prep. I got this pile of red, green, and yellow fabric for $8 at Goodwill. No more hints, though. Toby is guarding the surprise until Halloween. :)

2) Sell for reuse: I was happy to get an appointment to sell my book at Half Price Books. Like many businesses, they are moving to appointment-only to reduce exposure. I got a pile of ancient books and DVDs out of my house, into circulation for the next user, and made $3.25.

3) Refill/reduce packaging: Last January, I wrote about a new service called Loop, which is similar to a milkman service but for health and household products like dish soap and shampoo. They were still in limited cities, but you could sign up for their waiting list. This month, I got notified that they are finally in the Seattle area and I could sign up for early access! So I created my account and browsed around through the site. Things seem a little sparse with some products, especially the national brands, not yet available in the area, but I'm hopeful they will get more selection by the time they are available for general sign-up. On the plus side, they seem to have a house brand Puretto with decent selection on staples, ranging from bath bombs to dry pasta to spices.

4) Share: For a while, I've been amused by videos on YouTube of people creating incredible ball pits for their dogs to play in. I went so far at to look at kiddie pools and balls on Amazon, and then stopped myself. Do I want to spend $40 for what may or may not be fun? Do I want to buy a bunch of new plastic? No and no. Well, Buy Nothing saved the day, when I saw a neighbor post a ball pit!

Here, I'm setting it up for Meeko: 

She is confused and tripping over it. Clearly not used to getting into a pit. Are we trying to give her a bath?? 

Finally gets one ball out and leaves.

After this experience, I can say I had my 15 minutes of fun, and now I will pass the ball pit onto its 3rd owner. I've gotta say, borrowing or sharing is the absolute best for novelty items. You can have your fun and pass it on. 

What have you done this month to reduce your waste?

The Best Things in Life Are Free

Walking through the Detroit airport, it looks like they are newly installing water bottle refill stations. Way to go, Detroit!

Now, after dumping your liquids before security, you don't need to choose between trying to fill your bottle from a drinking fountain or paying $3+ for a plastic bottle of water. You can also be proud knowing you are part of the solution by not contributing to the 483B (like *billions*) water bottles used in 2019.

(Detroit is also using the stations to call attention to the importance of fresh tap water, and the partnership between Delta and the airport to support youth who are leading a water-testing initiative in Flint. Learn more here.)

Now, if you've been living under a rock like me, you missed that both Sea-Tac airport and Portland airport also have refill stations, and have since late 2012!

While this is particularly convenient when you are limited liquids and hostage to high airport prices, you can also benefit from refill stations in everyday life. Check out these resources to find water near you when you're out and about: 

Tap app Android iOS
In their own words, "Tap’s Refill Station network is partly made up of partnerships with coffee shops and fast-casual restaurants, while also showing you best public places to refill your water bottle around the world."

RefillMyBottle app Android iOS
In their words, "RefillMyBottle is an online map that identifies all the places - be it a cafe, resort, museum or shop - where refillers could walk in and fill up their bottle with clean drinkable water for free or a minimum fee."

Stay hydrated, friends!