If you’ve been following along this month for Plastic Free July, you might be wondering where you can get your hands on eco-friendly products. The appropriately named Zero Waste Near Me is a great place to start! For Chippenham residents, consider checking out these local(ish) businesses:
- Cousin Norman’s, Chippenham
- Just Because You Love It, Chippenham
- The Wild Food Company, Malmesbury
- Packaging Not Included, Marlborough
- Zero Green, Bristol
- Preserve, Bristol
Through suggestions from readers and a bit of sleuthing, I’ve found a number of online businesses doing their best to promote reusable products and plastic-free packaging. Although I have not tried them all (yet), this list is a great place to start for Plastic Free July and beyond:
- Buy Me Once: An online shop with a number of premium products that are guaranteed to last a lifetime (or at least longer than average).
- Ethical Eve: A variety of products to make sustainable living a little easier.
- Friendly Soap: This shop has come highly recommended by several readers of the blog, and it offers soaps, shampoos, and conditioners in recycled/recyclable packaging that are vegan and cruelty free as well as free from sodium lauryl sulfate, parabens, and other not-so-nice chemicals. It is also an ethicalconsumer.org best buy.
- Funky Soap Shop: I get quite a few products through the Funky Soap Shop because I like their refill service, and I’m hoping that more companies begin to follow suit online and off.
- Herbfarmacy: British grown beauty products that are cruelty free, plastic free, and smell divine.
- In Greens: A full-service website that covers everything from plastic-free travel and first aid products to kitchen, bathroom, and beauty products.
- Little B: Family-run company producing a great range of beeswax strips and an ever-growing shop of other plastic-free items.
- The Natural Spa: To quote from their tagline, The Natural Spa specialise in “plastic free and vegan hair care, soaps and other cosmetics.”
- Onya: Carrying an Onya bag with me was one of the first plastic-free swaps I made over a decade ago, and I still love their products: practical, efficient, and practically indestructible.
- Plastic Freedom: Pretty much a one-stop shop for plastic-free products, they also aim to cut back their packaging waste as well.
- Plastics Free: A Cornish company that stocks a wide-range of products for all areas of the house.
- Posy London: Organic and plastic-free deodorant, shampoo, and conditioner bars. The travel-size sets are great for samples.
- Tabitha Eve: A Welsh company that produces a number of handmade, plastic-free products for around the house.
- The Eco Shop UK: A little bit of everything to help you start down the path to reducing waste.
- Turtley Eco: Another one-stop shop, this one plants a tree for every order placed in the UK.
For US readers:
- Buy Me Once: Long-lasting products to help put an end to throwaway culture.
- Mighty Nest: A monthly subscription service for reusable products that came highly recommended by friends.
- Tiny Yellow Bungalow: Zero waste and plant-based products for the entire family (and house).
Did I forget any of your favourites? Let me know!
It’s probably worth mentioning that we cannot shop our way out of environmental problems, but, to borrow a quote from Anna Lappé, “Every time you spend money, you’re casting a vote for the kind of world you want.” We create the future by what we do in the present: let’s do what we can to make sure it’s a bright, less wasteful one.
