More than ever, consumers want to ditch the ditching habit and go zero-waste, especially at home. These shops can help get you started by breaking the single-use product habit.
There are plenty of steps you can take towards a zero-waste lifestyle without having to spend a dime. For example, keeping your plastic containers after ordering takeout to use for food storage, reducing reusing, and consuming less in general.
But for tasks that require a larger inventory, that’s where these zero waste shops might come in handy. Once you start looking at products—be it personal care or kitchen storage—it’s easy to see where there’s room for improvement.
What is zero-waste?
Zero-waste may be more an aspiration than it is a reality, especially in modern times. The goal is straightforward though: don’t use anything that can’t be composted, recycled, or reused. This means ditching single-use plastic and other single-use items such as cotton balls and swabs and even reusable menstrual products. Fortunately, there are a growing number of brands making eco alternatives to these everyday products. And the sustainable options keep coming.
The problem there is consumers are so far down the chain in the lifecycle of products that it’s impossible to know what type of waste was generated in producing the products you buy—even those marketed as zero-waste.
Likewise, containers, bottles, cans, and boxes dropped in blue bins for recycling, for example, don’t always end up being recycled. In fact, only about ten percent of items labeled as recyclable actually make it through the entire recycling process. Much of it winds up in the waste stream or pollutes oceans and waterways.
But that’s not a reason to give up. Aim for zero-waste and see if it doesn’t decrease your trash output in general. Something else fun happens when you aim for zero-waste: you become more aware of what you’re using and more invested in supporting quality over quantity. The less is more mantra has never been more true.
The best zero-waste online stores
Going zero-waste is by no means something you can do overnight. In our culture of single-use plastics and throwaway packaging, it can seem an impossible task to live completely waste-free. But it can be possible once you have the right tools in your arsenal. These zero-waste stores can help you on your journey.
1. Package Free
Package Free has a large selection of items to pick from. Whether you’re looking for plastic-free laundry detergent or a set of biodegradable hair ties, you’ll find something to suit your needs. The shop stocks some of the coolest and most well-known low-waste brands, including Georganics, Huppy, Marleys Monsters, and Vermont Soap, as well as a wide range of its own original products.
Try the handy zero-waste kits that are perfect for newcomers to the sustainability scene. Choose from a range of packages including no-waste kitchen, laundry, oral hygiene, period, and shaving products, among others.
2. Zerovana
Going zero-waste can be expensive, and Zerovana knows that. That’s why it offers an instant ten percent off all purchases when you sign up for the mailing list (so there’s really no downside).
It offers a large range of products to pick from for every zero-waste need—even a plastic-free dog shampoo bar so your pup can reduce his waste pawprint, too.
3. All Good Goods
All Good Goods tackles one of the biggest waste-producing areas: food. It delivers plastic-free food across the U.S. Most of its offerings are organic or sustainably produced. Options include pantry staples such as dried beans and grains, Fair Trade coffee, superfoods, sweeteners, and flour.
Everything from All Good Goods comes either in reusable glass jars or refills in paper bags. Customers buy the jar on their first order, then refills come in paper bags. All Good Goods offers easy subscription models too so you never run out of your favorite products.
“It’s nearly impossible to go to the grocery store and find what you need without any plastic packaging,” the company says. “We knew there had to be a better way. and since we couldn’t find it, we made it ourselves.”
4. Eco Roots
This fun online store is mainly dedicated to hair and beauty products, with a small selection of kitchen and home items.
Check out the bundle deal, which allows you to choose 3-6 products at a discounted rate. And you can earn up to 20 percent off when you create your own hair care, shaving, soap, cleaning, or dental hygiene bundle.
5. Net Zero Co.
Based out of Vancouver, Canada, Net Zero Co offers a vast variety of affordable plastic-free and zero-waste products.
Have any sustainability fanatics in your life? You can also purchase gift cards from $50 that can be used on any online product. Each gift card also plants one tree and has a completely carbon-neutral impact.