I vividly remember witnessing this controversy unfold during my formative years in Phoenix. Do you recall the first time you consciously recognized hate and racism in action on a systemic level? For me, it was in 1990 when Arizona denied the observance of MLK Day with a strong 76% majority of voters.
I am grateful to have been born into a progressive family, which meant that there was absolute outrage in my home about the outcome of that ballot measure. I remember my mother shouting in frustration at our television set, newspapers in her hands, and the car stereo on our way to school as reporters, politicians, and even citizens interviewed on the street tried to justify this outcome. She screamed as if they could hear her through the t.v., though it’s not out of the question that they heard her expletives from their swivel chairs in the capital building downtown. She was livid.
It was my mother who taught me to see through lies like “taxpayers can’t afford another holiday” to the racist truths buried underneath. Together we witnessed celebrities like Stevie Wonder and Rev. Jesse Jackson boycott the state of Arizona, canceling appearances and making it clear they wouldn’t return until MLK Day was recognized in the state. Even as a kid, I remember the embarrassment I felt by this stubborn display of racism and bigotry from my state, and at the same time, it was a catalyst for me to dig deeper and better understand this man who my state officials wanted so badly for everyone to ignore. It was the first time I recognized that if people in power want you to look the other way, they’re probably hiding something that is hurting someone.
Arizona voters and politicians effectively indicated that money was more important to them than honoring the most prominent civil rights leader of our time. It wasn’t until the NFL communicated to the state politicians in their language of money that we finally saw change in Arizona. By stripping Pheonix of its rights to host the Super Bowl in 1993, politicians finally changed their tune. Shortly thereafter, a new ballot measure was introduced that was eventually passed, and we became the last state in the U.S. to recognize MLK Day as a holiday, all in the name of money. My mother was once again disgusted that money was the driving factor, not the opportunity to show the Black and Brown constituents that a prominent civil rights leader such as Dr. King was worthy and important enough to honor with a state-recognized holiday. Arizona was still being run and controlled by a bunch of racist old white men who stood for greed, hate, and racism - nothing had changed.
I find myself moved, emotional, and in awe of so many people throughout history who have fought against injustice, yet I’m always especially touched when I learn more about and reflect on the work of Dr. King. And it’s particularly poignant for me considering my lived experience in Arizona in the ‘90s. I hope you’re taking some time on this MLK holiday to reflect on your own experiences (were you alive in the 80s and 90s? Do you remember when MLK Day became a holiday in your state?), seek out the voices of others, especially those directly affected by the systemic racism still entangled in the fabric of our nation, and act in ways that make a positive change in the present day lives of the most marginalized among us.
Fillaree will be closed today so that our staff can all participate in reflection and/or our own acts of service to honor the powerful Dr. King.
Wishing you love and light,
Alyssa Cherry.
]]>The egregious lack of a baseline truth around these matters made my experiences as an adult traversing the world fraught with jarring reality checks. When I was in early elementary school, a woman literally couldn't own a business in the United States without the signature of her husband. That law wasn’t changed until 1988. Today women technically own 40% of businesses in the country, but in 90% of those cases, the woman is the only employee. Women still have very little power in large industries. Take manufacturing, for example, where women own less than 2% of the 400,000+ manufacturing companies in the country.
An important note on intersectionality
While women across the globe are in the same shitstorm of patriarchy and misogyny, we’re not all in the same boat. Intersectionality plays a gigantic role in a woman’s experience and access to success. I am a cis white woman and have more advantages and privileges than women who are Black or Brown, LGBTQ, disabled, immigrants, formerly incarcerated, impoverished, or elderly. Take for example the manufacturing industry -- while less than 2% of companies are woman-owned, the number owned by women of color is not even recorded, but we can assume it is less than a tiny fraction of a percent.
What it means to be Fillaree, a woman-owned, and led business.
Community - Family - Safety - Grit & Integrity
Community
“It takes a village” is a phrase I have heard throughout my life and one that continues to hold significant meaning in my heart, my mind, and my actions. Perhaps most commonly referring to raising children, it’s a philosophy I put into practice while growing this business as well. Our village is our community made up of all you loyal refillers, our retail partners, our vendors up and down our supply chain, and fellow business owners in Durham and beyond.
I believe that it is because we are women that we embody our core values and protect our community so authentically -- it would feel unnatural to do it any other way. It stems from a lifelong knowing that it truly does take a village to achieve success. We don’t do anything in a vacuum. We live this daily by working with, buying from, holding up, and living for our community of small women-owned businesses. In fact, 99.5 % of all goods we sell in our store and almost all of our refill partners are women-owned businesses. We care for our village and each other in a way that can easily be described as maternal.
Family
When I began Fillaree I had a one-year-old and a four-year-old. I was balancing my number one job (Mom) with my entrepreneurial spirit and this great need I saw in the world for a company like Fillaree. (Read that full story here!) But having children puts up lots of barriers to entry into the business world, especially when you’re a woman. For me, that meant limited time, limited energy, and a visceral risk aversion to anything that might put my family’s resources at risk. The momma bear in me was not about to rack up debt or tap friends and family for funding, because we couldn’t afford to lose the resources we had. This meant that I started Fillaree from a very grounded place, with less than $700 of my own money, zero investors or loans, and a very slow growth mindset that allowed the business to grow at a pace that I could bear, which increased as my children got older.
Intuitive fear and the extra parenting burden that comes with being a mother was a real thing for me that simply isn’t the same for men or fathers, or even women without dependents ( elder parent care often falls on women and carries similar concerns). For years I was embarrassed about my risk-aversion tendencies. I was existing in fast-paced entrepreneurial circles surrounded by headlines of “venture capital raises”, “multiple million dollar series As”, “grow fast,” “break things,” which made me feel like I was doing it all wrong. In 2017 I was 3 years into Fillaree with barely more than 0% growth yet I still wasn't willing to break anything! I stuck to my gut and my senses and over the following few years things started to shift in a slow and steady way that was comfortable for me and didn’t put my family at risk. Being a woman-owned and led business means organic, slow, intentional growth. At Fillaree, that’s person to person, one refill at a time.
Safety
When you walk into Fillaree you’re greeted by warm lights, bright smells, and a welcoming safe environment. This is very intentional and very important to our business model. If you’re a woman who has never felt sexualized, harassed, or physically harmed on the job, you’re one of a very small minority. When women hold leadership positions and are intricately involved in building workplace culture, we will protect each other and create safe spaces. Our longtime team member Meredith shared her thoughts on this, so take it from her first hand:
“It is hard to articulate exactly what it is like to be part of something as special as Fillaree. The women I have met through this experience have all been nothing but encouraging, strong, intelligent, funny, and supportive. I walk into work each day greeted with beautiful energy, either from the store itself or one of my lovely co-workers. I leave behind reservations about how I need to dress or how to act. I can be myself without comment or judgment. Self-expression has been something that I used to have to fight for in spaces that I worked at in the past. The lie that was told to me about needing to fit into a certain box so you can land a corporate job couldn’t be more inaccurate. I got this job with these women by simply being true to who I am. Working for someone who wants to build a positive environment, and give people that she loves the chance to thrive and learn is the best part of the job. It is clear that when Alyssa hires someone, that she hires them to be part of our family.” ~ Meredith Lewis, Fillaree Team Member
Our reality as women who have grown up in a world where sexual violence, threatening aggression, sexual harassment, and unwanted advances are part of our daily lives is that we are always vigilant: locking the door when we're alone, always being alert and aware when walking to our cars, documenting harassment in notes on our phones, and telling each other about men who are threats. As a woman-owned and led business, our physical and emotional safety is top of mind, but it’s rarely noted how much of our time and energy this consumes.
Fillaree is a SAFE place. PERIOD!
Grit & Integrity
We put the 'grit' in integrity. Women forge paths and make way for our dreams with the same grit with which we have cared for our families, our communities, and ourselves for millennia. Modern civilizations are built on the backs of unpaid labor. Behind every man who gets all the credit (and pay!), there are women cooking, cleaning, hosting, entertaining, consoling, peace-keeping, and bridge-building in the background, always. We know how to get shit done in thankless environments. So when I dreamed of Fillaree, I put that same tenacity to work, within systems and at tables that had no place set for me. There was no roadmap or model for me to follow, but with my passion and an unwavering commitment to sustainability, safety, and community care, Fillaree slowly and steadily took flight the way I envisioned it would. It just so happened that for me this involved washing more dishes in the last decade than I care to recount. I dare say every woman business owner has her own dish pit of grit that she endured without a second thought because if nothing else, generations of unpaid labor have made us strong and resilient.
We are building the future we want to see, built for sustainability - for both people and planet. Our team members have to be able to tend to their own needs (food, shelter, rest, etc) while also producing essential products for our community like our tried and true Soap & Suds Hand and Body Soap, our “firstborn” at Fillaree and the product that keeps our doors open and our loyal refillers coming back again and again!
Being a woman-owned and led business today and reflecting on the past, present, and future, it’s clear to see that we have come a long way. And, we have a long journey ahead of us yet. I’m just so grateful that Fillaree is the vehicle in which I am taking this wild ride. It’s a bright beacon of light, a soft place to land, a place that feels like home when we need it the most. And as always, mi casa es su casa. You’re an important part of this community we are building and we hope Fillaree feels like home to you, too.
💚 Sustainably Yours,
Alyssa
Welcome back to our little email space for reflection and sharing, the old-school way (peace out Social Media!)! If you missed our last email… you can read it here and catch up on our new philosophy about communication and keeping in touch with you!
So, what's been on my mind this month? Well, do you remember back in 2020 when we hung our Black Lives Matter chalkboard in the window at Fillaree? It was shortly after Minneapolis police murdered George Floyd and during the height of the BLM movement’s surge across the US. I can remember a palpable feeling during that time: an emotional soup made up of discomfort, fear, shame, and disgust on top of an intense activation and motivation to do something, anything, that I could to support the Black and Brown members of my community. That was an intense year or so of active anti-racism work and dialogue - sometimes quiet and intimate, others screaming at the top of my lungs with a bunch of strangers. I definitely wasn’t alone. Other businesses, both tiny and huge, were making efforts to join the BLM movement.
As time passed, we renovated and rearranged our storefront more than once, and that chalkboard shifted from the window to other homes around Fillaree - further and further from our front door. It’s always been present but lost its placement on the front lines. We can’t help but recognize the greater metaphor there - it seems BLM has moved to the background on many levels, everywhere.
But that shift isn’t because the fight is over. It’s far from over, and we have so much more work to do in this arena. In conversations with Black and Brown business owners in our community, I keep hearing from them that the flame is dwindling… the intense community support that spiked (in the form of dollars spent on their services and wares) in 2020 has diminished considerably, and as a fellow small business I know that makes it hard to stay in business. Our margins are low and expenses are high - every customer counts toward our success or failure!
As I’ve been in deep reflection about this, a few things have floated to the top for me:
At Fillaree, our most important core belief is that individuals taking small actions will have a big impact. It is literally the reason I founded this business. What we do in our homes, from how we treat our planet to how we treat our neighbors, matters. Fillaree has been committed to building a diverse community with voices from many different lived experiences, both on our team and in our Refiller community. And in order to continue this important work we do, we have to recommit ourselves to fighting the systemic racism that continues to haunt this country. While our mission may seem on the surface to be centered around environmental impact, the roots of environmental justice are tangled and intertwined with the racial injustice on which this country is built.
Here are some questions we’re posing to ourselves in order to facilitate our renewed focus on this work and we invite you to do this work alongside us from your corner of the world.
This month we brought our Black Lives Matter chalkboard back to the front of the Fillaree storefront. It’s not only an important signifier to our community, but it’s a reminder to walk our talk, even if we stumble over our feet and our words along the way. If we fall, let us fall in the direction of revolution and liberation, toward true freedom for all. We’re all in this together, let’s stop sliding back!
In solidarity,
Alyssa
]]>FOR THE LAST WEEK OF JULY: Every Instagram or Facebook share or @Fillaree mention will enter you into a contest to win a free Bulk Refill of your choice! Share anything from our feed or create your own content about your beloved Fillaree products to be entered!
THAT'S 64 OZ OF YOUR FAVORITE FILLAREE PRODUCT!
Y'all... social media is a drag. We're a small business with a small marketing budget, and for a long time, social media was a great way to reach people like you who really care about our mission and our products. These days though, the algorithms and the men in charge are making it harder and harder to reach people without pouring more and more money into the machine. Okay, fine - if the big corporations want to play that way, let them throw money back and forth at each other all day. We've got better things to do!
BUT YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA VOICE STILL MATTERS! One thing that is still true in the mysterious land of social media, is that when real people share posts, their friends still see that content. And word-of-mouth recommendations from friends are pure gold to a little business like us! So, let's play with different rules! From now until the end of the month, share any Fillaree post from our feed or create your own shout-out/review, and we'll enter your name (for every post you share!) into a drawing to win a free bulk refill of your choice!
RULES FOR ENTRY:
This contest is in no way sponsored by Instagram or Facebook.
We're feeling all warm and fuzzy - and not just because it's July and the heat index has been nothing but brutal for the last little bit! The people have spoken (in the form of two local "Best of" awards) and your love for us shines bright! We are over the moon that we won the write-in category "Made in Durham" in The Durham Magazine's2022 Best of Durham award alongside our good friends (and total rockstars), at Bright Black Candles, Big Spoon Roasters, and Durham Distillery – we are humbled and honored to say the least. This felt like a "made it" moment, I won't lie.
And then, in the same week we learned that we were finalists (honorable mention, if you will) in The Indy's Best of Triangle for a category that is so affirming of our mission: Best Environmentally Friendly Business in the Triangle! It's no surprise that The Scrap Exchange took home the top prize in that category, and to hear the people confirm that we're also at the top of the pack in businesses who care about environmental impact makes us flutter with pride!
We recently enlisted the services of 3rd party evaluator, Microchem Laboratory, to test the efficacy of our beloved Soap & Suds Hand and Body wash. It passed the USP 51 testing, which is a testing method that determines the antimicrobial efficacy of a material's preservatives. Our soaps were put to the test in an independent lab and proved to kill dangerous bacteria like E. Coli.
We haven't changed anything about Soap & Suds - our ingredients and formula are exactly as they always have been, but now we have 3rd party verification of the safety and efficacy of this product in the face of potential bacteria and other microorganisms that it may encounter.
Rest assured your hands and health are well-protected when washing with Soap & Suds!
]]>Last month, we got a new piece of equipment that you may have seen on our Instagram stories. This is HUGE for us – it’s a filling machine that will allow us to fill our bottles in a fraction of the time! We worked with a local fabricator, Pendergraph Machines, and they were fantastic from start to finish.
During the training with the guys from Pendergraph Machines, I was very curious whether it was common for them to make equipment for and train women-led teams. So I asked “how many machines have you all built for women-owned companies in the past year”? He thought about it for a few seconds, looked at the other guy and said “hm, yall are the first.” He then mentioned that they had a candle company client in Durham a few years ago that was woman-owned… and we knew right away that it had to be our good friends at Bright Black Candle!
I was shocked! I forget that we’re in a bubble around here where women-owned businesses are more common and well-supported by our community. It’s not uncommon for me to see other women hauling drums of raw materials, driving forklifts, and meeting the physical and practical day-to-day challenges of running our businesses. But that’s not the case across the country or the globe. With a macro-view, we’re actually quite rare. But I fully expected for a company like Pendergraph to report at least 10 or 15% of their clientele to be women, but that’s just not the case.
So, as I continue my own reflection of what Fillaree means to me, our local community and beyond, this reminder of how rare we are makes me appreciate the importance of our position and our mission much more. It’s not just about making soap, it’s about keeping this snowball rolling and growing so that other women can see their own potential for making change within the systems of manufacturing.
Manufacturing is an industry that won’t be going anywhere as long as there are still people on this planet who need things to survive. But manufacturing doesn’t have to stay the same as it’s always been just because people need the same things they’ve always needed. Change is absolutely necessary – we preach this constantly. It’s the reason Fillaree exists – not because I just had to make soap, but because the manufacturing, packaging and distribution processes for soaps and cleaners didn’t meet our’s, our community’s, and especially our planet’s needs.
So, as we celebrate all the major strides that women have made over the course of history, let’s also look to the future and make sure we’re fully appreciating the paths that they have trail-blazed for us, so that we can keep trail-blazing ahead. Industries like manufacturing desperately need more women at the helm, and I’m stoked to be one of them.
]]>Since we moved into the Fillaree Storefront and Factory back in 2018, we’ve never had a trash can. We’ve had collection bins that fuel our reuse/recycling/repurposing missions and until this year, have gotten by without needing to place a landfill-bound trash can in our facility.
At first, I was pretty rigid and adamant about being a trashcan-free zone. But, the pandemic and many of the things I’ve learned by being involved in social justice movements in our community have forced me outside of my trashcan-free bubble and deeply changed my perspective. I found myself less inspired by tips and tricks on how to be "zero waste" as I gained a deeper understanding of accessibility issues that are rooted white supremacy, classism and ablism that make being “zero waste” unattainable to so many. Bragging about collecting our trash in a tiny container for a year started seeming pretty mundane and unimportant in the scheme of things; and above all it seemed exclusive and unattainable to many – including members of our incredible team here at Fillaree.
2021 brought a lot of change to Fillaree. Our team grew with amazing new faces from all walks of life. And with them came new needs and requests, one of which was the need for a trashcan in our bathroom for disposal of menstruation supplies. Of course, there are zero-waste ways of dealing with being a menstruating person. But, ya know what, it’s not my place to tell any person how they should respond to their body’s needs –zero-waste menstrual products simply aren’t for everyone. So, guess what? My team wants a trashcan, so a trashcan they got!
In the grand scheme of things, a tiny trash an in our bathroom will have a miniscule effect on our overall zero-waste goals, and my relationship with the team at Fillaree and hearing their needs is more important to me than a fraction of a percentage point on our waste audit report. Speaking of, we’ve got those 2021 numbers!
The end of January always means it’s time to review and analyze the waste that Fillaree produced the previous year. As a company striving to divert as much away from the landfill as possible, this is always an important task for us, and thanks to Gather Green, it’s also an easy one! We’re proud to say that we diverted 99.96% of the waste created at Fillaree in 2021!
According to Gather Green’s annual waste audit report, we diverted 5,497 lbs of waste that would have otherwise been headed for the landfill and funneled it into creative reuse, single material recycling, compost, and secondhand donations. This brings our total diversion to date, since we started recording our diversion efforts with Gather Green’s help in 2019, to over 10,000 lbs!
So, what was left that couldn’t be diverted? Well, that number naturally rose (along with diversion rates) as we grew as a company. In the past few years, we’ve celebrated landfill-bound trash weighing in under 10lbs, and this year that number increased to about 20 lbs (self-reported, not collected by Gather Green). That’s just 0.4% of the total waste produced by our company in an entire year that had to be disposed of at a landfill.
Diversion, the process of changing the path that any item will take away from the landfill into a new purpose (be it creative reuse, recycling, composting, etc), is only part of our overall waste reduction strategy. Prevention is our number one goal in any scenario, which is why we work so hard to form relationships with our raw material suppliers in which we can reuse their containers by returning them to be refilled, rather than having to divert them from the landfill in other ways. Our relationship with Carolina Gold Sunflower Oil is one such example. We prevented over 400 lbs of plastic bottle waste that would have been part of our diversion totals by switching to sunflower oil in returnable barrels from Carolina Gold.
So, all in all, I think we’re doing just fine and I couldn’t be more proud of our team and this small business that continues to make a BIG impact on the community around us – trashcan and all! We grateful for our Refillers who make this possible – thanks for caring as much as we do about building a brighter, greener, more equitable world around us.
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As we wrap up 2021, it’s the perfect time for a #yearend #FridayReflection.
These last few days of 2021 have inspired me to dig deep and really reflect on where I am, and in turn, where Fillaree is. When I launched my little refillable soap company back in 2014, there were no other refillable soaps or cleaners on the market – online or brick-and-mortar. I launched this business because what I wanted to see in the world didn’t exist – so, I created Fillaree and boy did she step up to fill that gap! I could not be more proud of what has grown and blossomed out of that seed I planted so long ago.
The truth is, as I look at what Fillaree has become, it’s almost unrecognizable. Over time, our community, our refillers, the environment around us has shaped and shifted Fillaree into what she is today. It’s no longer just my little family business that met a local need for Earth-safe soap. Fillaree is an entity all her own – she’s so much more.
Y’all know I’m not trying to fit some mold of what a business owner/entrepreneur is supposed to be – there was no road map for how to create a company like Fillaree, so I’ve never had a model to go by. But I guess I always thought that eventually I’d have it all figured out. But I was wrong! Lately I’ve been reflecting on how strange it is to be completely responsible for an entity that I actually have so little control over! If I’m not here, Fillaree ceases to exist… yet, Fillaree is so much more than me. I’m just a steward nurturing her so she can continue to grow.
But these days I find myself asking… “in which direction should she grow, now?” Launching a company that was totally unique in model and form and growing a company that now has quite a host of competitors, are two very different charges. Don’t get me wrong, the plethora of other zero-waste and refillable companies on the market now is quite flattering – it tells me I was ahead of my time in 2014 and blazed this trail for others to follow! But seriously, what now?
As large corporations and well-funded startups alike embrace refill as a model (granted, with a lot of #greenwashing that’s very disappointing to see), where does that leave Fillaree? Where does that leave me? I can say that competing with large national brands is not something I’m interested in doing… it seems a waste of my time and energy to try to compete on a level that isn’t where Fillaree fits.
The thing that has really sustained me over the past year, another tough mid pandemic year with lots of trials and tribulations, has been the relationships I’ve built through Fillaree. From mentoring a team member who launched a business of her own, bringing in a bar soap making partner to elevate her amazing product, connecting with a local farmer to shorten our supply chain, and sponsoring a local non-profit to provide soap to unhoused neighbors… these relationships mean more to me than any tank of soap ever will. But without these tanks of soap, none of this exists.
Embarking on a new year is always a mixed bag for me. On one hand, I love to set goals and have my eye on a prize. But time and experience have taught me that “life is what happens while you’re busy making plans.” So, I’m trying to take an older and wiser approach this year. I’ll keep showing up to this little haven I’ve built at Fillaree and doing the work I love to do, and I’ll take each day as it comes. My goal for this year is simple yet so complex - pay attention and be still enough to notice where Fillaree and I are needed in our community, while staying nimble and quick on my feet so that I can take action where it will matter the most.
From the bottom of my heart, I wish you a Happy New Year and promise my love for you grows more every day! This community of refillers is an absolute delight to show up for day after day, year after year! We’ve made a tremendous impact in 2021 and I can’t wait to see what we do together in the year to come.
With much peace, love, and refills…
and a boat load of gratitude,
Alyssa
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There are a number of AMAZING things to note about this new packaging.
First and foremost, let’s talk about the “bag” inside the box. It’s called a Smart Bottle® and it’s manufactured right here in North Carolina! If you’re following along with other happenings at Fillaree, you’ll know this is the 2nd big win for keeping our supply chain as close to home as possible! (Read about our new partnership with Carolina Gold Sunflower Farm here.)
The Smart Bottle® is:
Now, let’s examine the box it comes in! The box, made and printed in the USA, serves two purposes: it’s both a shipping container and a dispensing stand! Once it arrives at your home, you just punch out the perforated sections, attach the pump or nozzle (depending on the product you ordered) and it will hold the Smart Bottle® in the correct position in a cupboard or pantry until you’re ready to refill. It creates your own little refill station at home! Plus you can reuse, compost, or recycle the box when you no longer need it.
The Bag-in-a-Box design boasts a couple more exciting changes:
From a purely operational standpoint, we are loving this shift in the Fillaree factory! The bag-in-a-box design streamlines our operations greatly. They are easier to fill, quicker to pack, and easier to store – win, win, win! Coupled with our new dish washing partner, Don’t Waste Durham, who keeps our returned bags cleaned and sanitized for us, we are relishing the extra time available to our team to take care of customers (we were able to expand storefront hours again), take care of ourselves and have restful time off, and envision and test exciting innovations for Fillaree’s future!
So far, we couldn’t be happier with this big change, and we can’t wait to hear what you think about it when you get your first Bag-in-a-Box Refill!
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It’s an exciting day! We’re announcing a new collaboration that is:
You know we’ve always taken great pride in our commitment to being a zero-waste company. What we’re able to do within our own walls is an impressive accomplishment, but we’ve always had our sights set on a greater level of impact.
We regularly bend over backwards to find ways to make sure that all the excess packaging we receive in our raw material orders doesn’t end up in the landfill -- it feels like we’re constantly swimming upstream (through waves of plastic wrap). I’m always on the search for raw material vendors who offer the kind of high-quality ingredients that make Fillaree products so special, while also buying into our mission to reduce waste from the get-go.
Team Fillaree & Farmer Lee with all the empty oil barrels - P.C. James Bowman
Well, today, I’m thrilled to announce that one such beautiful partnership, vision, and Fillaree dream has come to fruition! We have replaced all of the olive oil in our recipes with NC-grown, non-gmo, cold pressed, sunflower oil from Carolina Gold Farm in Harrelsville , NC!! This oil is delivered to us in large barrels and when they’re empty, we send them back to Lee on the farm to be refilled with more oil! So, the same system that you all participate in by returning your bottles to refill, we’re creating in our supply chain by returning our barrels to the Sunflower Farm!
This means we’ll no longer have to deal with the packaging waste from the olive oil that was shipped to us from California in non-returnable bottles, and instead we’re using an oil that is grown and processed right here in North Carolina, just a few hours from our factory! The carbon footprint reduction here is MASSIVE! And by buying in larger quantities from this local source, and using our own refillable containers, our costs are going down while we’re investing in our local agricultural economy. We’re passing those savings onto our refillers by reducing the cost of Soap & Suds by $0.10 per ounce – which is over 15 % savings for you!
Back in September, Alexandria and I took a mini road trip and a bunch of empty barrels to the farm and got to meet Lee, the amazing farmer & business person behind the sunflower crop & oil. The visit was so much fun. After hopping in his pickup truck for a bumpy, wild ride around the farm, we stopped in a lovely spot to take some photos. Sunflowers are Alexandria's favorite flower so we couldn’t miss this opportunity! Alexandria asked Lee if there were any snakes in the fields, to which Lee replied “yes,” quite nonchalantly! Not “watch out” or “maybe”, but just an affirmative “yes.” Rattlesnakes, copperheads, and all the others, he went on to explain. With a quick apprehensive glance at each other and a silent “uummmmmmm, okay…”, Alexandria and I stepped ever so carefully to a clearing in the flowers for some lovely photos like these:
Alexandria & I trying not to freak out in the fields! - P.C. James Bowman -
We were so impressed with all that Lee accomplishes during his long days on the farm. He is a wheelchair user and manages this 50+ acre farm from his trusty pick up truck, with walkie-talkies and a cell phone. It was incredible to meet Lee, who is a very kind and sincere man, even a bit shy. From seeding, planting, tending, and then harvesting, pressing, and processing the oil – everything happens right on site and Lee’s systems are well-oiled machines (pun intended!). Witnessing the natural, magical beauty he is stewarding there is awe-inspiring to say the least!
Farmer Lee Britt & Fillaree founder Alyssa cracking up - P.C. James Bowman
And not only have we formed this amazing working relationship, we also introduced Camilla from Nailah’s Shea to Lee as well, creating another local connection. She’s planning on using this sunflower oil in her bar soaps, too! Camilia, who is from that area of eastern NC, joined us at the farm during our visit for a few photos. She and Lee realized that they actually know some of the same folks from the surrounding area - it truly is a small world!
Alyssa, Camilia, & Alexandria with our bar soaps made with Sunflower Oil - P.C. James Bowman
This partnership is a dream come true. It’s been in the works for a while now, and finally being able to announce it feels like a huge milestone for us! It’s been a long time coming and if it weren’t for our supportive refiller community that keeps growing and increasing the demand for our products, this would have never been possible! Thanks for continuing to show up time and time again to refill instead of take-and-trash. You’re making this kind of magic happen....
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The Fillaree extended family is growing! A new public partnership has been in the works for a few months now, and we’re excited to introduce you to this exciting new collaboration with Nailah’s Shea!
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After years of pushing beyond our limits to make most of our products in-house, I realized that something had to give. Our equipment and factory space was working quite well for our liquid soaps and cleaners, but the bar soaps were becoming an increasing burden on our team and our production facilities. Our customers love bar soaps though, so eliminating them wasn’t an option; but neither was continuing to tax our systems so much to make them. So, I started looking for a bar soap partner.
And that’s when I met Camilia, the owner of Nailah’s Shea in Greensboro, NC. It was basically love at first sight. Camilia lives and breathes the bar soap business – she has perfected the manufacturing process and is at a place where she can scale up to meet Fillaree’s needs. And better yet, her quality standards already meet Fillaree’s strict criteria for all natural ingredients with low impact production. We are aligned in so many ways that building a partnership was a no brainer.
Public Partnership, not Private Label
We made an intentional decision to create a public partnership rather than a private label agreement. Private labeling would mean we repackage soaps that Camilia makes (either using our recipe or her own) with the Fillaree brand. Sometimes that kind of relationship makes sense in the retail business, but that wasn’t at all what we wanted with this new relationship.
Camilia’s brand is strong and her products are amazing. We dare say that you’re going to fall deeper in love with Nailah’s Shea bars than you ever could have imagined. Team Fillaree certainly has (we each already have our favorites!). There was simply no denying the fact that she is better at bar soaps than we are.
So that brings us to this exciting day. We’re launching Nailah’s Shea soaps as our exclusive bar soap at the Fillaree storefront, online, and with our corporate clients, like The Durham Hotel, and hanging up our bar soap making hats, for good! We’re super psyched that this means we have more time and energy for all of your other Fillaree faves, like Soap & Suds, Clean Plate Club, and Clean Dream!
While we keep doing the stuff where we truly shine, we’re passing the spotlight on to others where they shine brighter. We’re holding each other up and rejoicing in the fact that it takes a village to run these mission-driven small women-owned businesses - which makes it all the more fun to do!
Camilia shared these lovely words about her thoughts about this new venture:
“My first reaction was "WOW!" I have always loved the mission and vision of Fillaree, as they mirror our mission and vision as well. So, naturally I was humbled when Alyssa approached me with the possibility of a partnership. At the same time, I was a bit nervous because this ongoing project would be one of the most involving ventures Nailah's Shea has ever taken on as of yet. Likewise, this opportunity really allows me to showcase my love for holistic wellness through our use of natural organic and fair trade body care products to a broader audience. Moreover, I truly feel that Nailah's Shea and Fillaree will be able to exemplify our love of low waste, handcrafted organic and fair trade goodness to the nation by our partnership. And being two woman-owned businesses from the Triad and Triangle I must say is a plus! 😉”
We couldn’t have said it better ourselves… it’s such an honor, and a “major plus” to be embarking on this together!
]]>Living in the midst of a global pandemic was not something I expected to happen in my lifetime. Experiencing this first hand now has really opened my eyes to a few things about the lifestyle choices I have had the privilege of making prior to this crisis. I have been on a mission to reduce single-use plastic waste in my community and my own life for over 6 years now. At times, I’ve even given myself props: I have been very good at it! But a pandemic changes everything.
Bulk Bins are pretty much closed
They are no longer self-service – which means I can’t bring my own containers and pre-packaged is my only option. Even the bakery case is closed, so no plastic-free cookies! Every grab and go item seems to be double or even triple-wrapped in plastic. But, we have to eat!
Economic Uncertainty
These are scary times for a million reasons. While certain revenue streams have stopped or slowed down, my children's appetites seem to have increased! They are now home all the time. As we buy a lot more groceries to feed our family, food cost is a larger concern on our family budget. At times I have chosen bagged apples and oranges instead of loose because they’re significantly less expensive that way. I hate bringing a single-use plastic bag home, but it’s just a choice I’m making right now so that I can continue to feed my family fresh foods through the duration of this crisis. Of course, I’m recycling those bags at our local grocery store, but it makes me cringe for sure!
The threat of a Potentially Deadly Virus
I’ve never been a “germaphobe.” Knowing that antibacterial chemicals have an adverse effect on our immune systems and waterways, I have avoided these products at all costs. I’ve always had the “germs make your immune system stronger” mentality. Throughout the years you could find me refilling my trusty reusable water bottle at public places without batting an eye. And, I have avoided hand sanitizer like the plague. I’ve always trusted that good ol’ Fillaree soap and water, and Fillaree Clean Dream, would and does keep our hands and surfaces perfectly clean. But the threat of a potentially deadly virus has made me rethink my habits for current times. I suddenly have 2 small plastic bottles of hand sanitizer in my life, (note: we are working on a refillable option, though). For now, I’m still doing what I can to reduce waste – refilling the small bottle from a larger one, and adding alcohol to the clean dream spray to give it more sanitizing power. But these are new plastics introduced into my household… and ya know what, I’m okay with it.
PrivilegeI have always been aware of the privilege that makes it possible to choose less wasteful options. Our hierarchy of needs must be met further up the chain before considerations around plastic waste enter into the picture. And even though my own hierarchy has changed, I’m still in a position of great privilege as a white woman, from a middle-class family, with support systems and safety nets around me. That is the position from which I’m witnessing the social justice uprising happening around us. We’re watching a revolution unfold!
So, it’s not just the pandemic that has adjusted my outlook, but the Black Lives Matter movement is influencing what I prioritize in my life and my business, too. My focus has shifted from how I can lead by example and walk the walk of a sustainability activist to how I can use my platform and business to support important social justice issues and make positive change. Being proactively anti-racist takes consistent evaluation and effort toward creating equity and justice.
Through these personal evolving shifts, the mission of Fillaree remains steadfast and true: To make refilling natural soaps and cleaners as convenient as it is rewarding.
Fillaree was born from my own frustration at the lack of easy options to reuse and refill. It is so clear to me that now more than ever companies like ours need to take the lead and make it easy, straightforward, and AFFORDABLE to live a less wasteful lifestyle. Some of the hacks and tricks I have used in the past, no matter how difficult, time-consuming, and sacrificial, seem impossible right now.
However, I do I think it’s possible to innovate and implement mass deposit systems at bulk bins, salad bars, and restaurants, to make zero-waste “grab and go” an easy no brainer. It is possible to take the responsibility off of the consumer and stop filling our precious planet with toxic plastic trash. Fillaree has been using a deposit system for years and it works great. It’s a proof of concept that we can reduce and REUSE instead of single-use.
Consider this an open letter to the refiler community. It is my hope that sharing my honest & personal experience may inspire you to lessen any self-judgment or doubt you may have as we all navigate these trying times from whatever positive we find ourselves in. I’m willing to bet we’re all still doing the absolute best we can. And I’d rather see a boatload of imperfect environmentalists doing their best than a handful of perfect ones. We are stronger together...
Peace, Love, & Refill,
Alyssa Cherry
Founder/Fillaree
(Image: my daughter, Loretta, and I taking our recycling into Boulder, CO on a camping trip, there were no compost or recycling facilities at the camp ground)
]]>Lately, I’ve been getting a lot of questions from our refiller community about whether our natural soaps are effective during this time of uncertainty regarding the spread of Coronavirus as well as the common cold and flu.
The answer is clear: YES!
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states that there’s no scientific evidence to support that soaps containing antibacterial agents are more effective against germs and pathogens than plain, natural soaps. The CDC says that your best defense against the spread of disease is to wash your hands with plain soap and water with plenty of friction for at least 20 seconds. The CDC also recommends turning off your faucet while you scrub to avoid wasting water, and that there is little scientific data to suggest that germs would transfer between your hands and the faucet.
For the eco-conscious among us, wasting water is just one cause for alarm these days. As coronavirus cases are mounting across the U.S., many people are concerned about the potential for quarantine and are stockpiling their pantries with supplies. While we’re not suggesting that you don’t take precautionary measures yourselves, this sudden spike in consumption only disrupts the supply chain. Maybe you’ve noticed empty shelves at your local grocery store where the toilet paper or hand sanitizer used to be. Don’t get me wrong — everyone has a right to feel anxious during these uncertain times, but is excessive hoarding really the best course of action?
If you’re a low-waste person like me, seeing overconsumption of single-use plastics might give you a serious case of eco-anxiety — as if we didn’t have enough to worry about already! So if you’re as concerned as I am about all of this excessive consumption, then I encourage you to continue to consider your environmental impact — yes, even during these times of crisis when hand sanitizing products and other single-use plastics are being emphasized. Yes, it’s still possible to consider the environment while you take measures to keep yourself and your family safe from dangerous germs and pathogens. That’s why Fillaree is here to help support you!
Still not convinced? Let’s remember that the coronavirus is a virus, not a bacterium. Soap washes away germs and pathogens that cause viruses, while antibacterial soaps destroy bacteria, which means there’s no need to use products containing antibacterial agents! Even the FDA has said that the use of antiseptics could cause more harm than good, since bacteria could become more resistant over time.
Remember, the best way to keep yourself safe against coronavirus is to wash your hands with plain soap vigorously by rubbing them together for 20 seconds to generate friction, which releases germs from your skin. Most people sing or hum the Happy Birthday song twice while they wash, but we think “Raspberry Beret” by Prince is a little more fun.
With all this extra hand washing business, we’re all going through a lot more soap these days! Wouldn’t you rather lather up with a soap that’s naturally moisturizing and good for your skin, that isn’t creating any extra waste? It always feels good, to Fillaree.
]]>In 2019, Fillaree partnered with Gather Green, a Durham-based Waste Recovery consulting company that helps businesses divert waste through creative reuse. Here’s what we learned.
In the five years we’ve been in operation, Fillaree has always remained a zero waste business. But did you know that even zero waste (also called “zero landfill”) businesses still produce some level of waste? Despite the different categorizations among communities and businesses, a Zero Waste Business is generally and more technically speaking "virtually zero waste" in that it achieves a landfill diversion rate of around 98 percent or more, while most are considered "landfill diverted" if they achieve between 75 and 80 percent diversion. Those materials diverted are typically either recycled, reused, or composted. In a true zero waste, circular economy, any potential trash generated from products are designed to return back to the manufacturer—much like how our Refiller Subscriber Program functions.
Full disclosure: It’s impossible to be 100 percent zero waste—though we certainly try to get as close as possible! But even though we’re a small, sustainable operation that makes clean, all-natural products, we’re still faced with the same challenges as any business when considering how we might produce less trash. Since transparency is one of our core values, we conducted our first-ever trash audit for 2019 so that we could discover just how much trash we were producing, and get even more creative about how we could generate less and reuse more.
A trash or waste audit is an industrial term for assessing the amount of waste a person or business has generated over a period of time. Since an audit is typically a standard, one-time event that provides limited information and is devoid of solution and strategy, we were really excited when we discovered Gather Green, a green waste management company right here in Durham. Started by Bryce Northington in 2017, Gather Green helps businesses divert waste that’s often harder to recycle and/or reuse. Through Bryce’s unique “waste discovery” process, she looked at every piece of trash produced by Fillaree and evaluated its potential for reuse.
We think the amount of pollution and waste generated by a midsize company is staggering. If the average person produces four pounds of trash per day, we estimate that a small business with a dozen employees could generate at least 20 pounds of trash per day—and about 7,500 pounds of trash per year! Imagine what could happen if more businesses around the country and beyond actually paid attention to how much trash they were producing? We believe that businesses of any size have a responsibility to assess their carbon footprint, especially here in the Bull City. There’s no landfill in Durham—the closest one is 90 miles away in Sampson County and will likely be full within the next 10 years.
Partnering with Gather Green gave us the opportunity to measure exactly how much trash we were sending to the landfill, and it was really important for us to share these findings with our like-minded community. We are pleased to report that since starting our year-long waste audit on January 7, 2019, we managed to produce just eight pounds of trash for an entire year. That's 93 percent less than the average business! And we couldn’t have done it without Gather Green’s innovative reuse and diversion strategies.
In 2019, Bryce visited our soap factory once a month to evaluate our progress, collect our trash for potential reuse, and offer better solutions so that we could produce less waste. Bryce aims to divert waste from all waste streams, including recycling and TerraCycle which spends a ton of energy remaking materials that are still potentially useful. She considers how to give items a second life that use less energy, such as repurposing materials for local artists to create new products like bound books and journals, or by donating to the Durham Scrap Exchange, a creative arts reuse center.
With Gather Green’s help, we made a number of shifts to our product design like switching to compostable labels and even swapping plastic stickers for screen printed bottles. Instead of putting our plastic film in the trash, Bryce took it to a specific place where it was recycled, and sent items like water filters back to the manufacturer. But we’re most excited about in 2020, is Gather Green’s new partnership with Jeffrey Woobenhurst of Fumble Labs, who is building 3D printers that remold 3D printed filament from shredded plastic. Soon, Gather Green will recover all of Fillaree’s plastic waste to go directly to this cutting edge new project and give it a second life.
Even still, there’s always going to be that eight pounds of trash. There will inevitably be that one item that has nowhere to go, like the insulated space blanket we used to wrap our soap tank that was so caked and corroded with soap and sludge that we had no choice but to send it to the landfill. But we do take pride in knowing that the blanket accounted for six of our eight total pounds.
1. We discovered exactly how much trash we were creating!
In 2019, Fillaree successfully diverted 3,617 pounds of waste from the landfill. In total, we created about 3,625 pounds of waste. Of that, we recycled 2,771 pounds; reused, repurposed, or composted 845 pounds; and managed to send just eight pounds to the landfill (six pounds of which was that pesky electric space blanket!). In order to obtain these figures that made us really proud, we had to become a lot more conscious about what we were recycling, more mindful about the products and ingredients we were purchasing, and a lot more creative about what we were doing with what would have otherwise been trash.
2. We reevaluated how we were labeling our bottles.
For the past five years, the stickers on our reusable bottles were derived from glossy sticker release lining paper made from silicone that cannot be recycled. Sure, there are commercial industrial recycling companies that exist that repurpose this material into plastic bags, but we’d need two tons of release liner paper in order to qualify—and our small business simply does not produce that level of volume (not yet anyway!). Gather Green was able to take some of our plastic film and repurpose it to local stores that used it for cushioning packaged products instead of bubble wrap, but still, we needed a more long term solution that wouldn’t produce any trash at all. We are pleased to announce that by 2021, all of our bottles will be screen printed. We’ve already tested this out on our new Refillable Condensed Soap, and are launching a Kickstarter in February 2020, to bring this exciting new product to market. (Stay tuned for more!)
3. We reassessed our plastic coconut oil bags.
We use a ton of coconut oil for our products which means we need to buy in bulk. And up until our trash audit, we were using these large plastic wrapped coconut oil bags that were so saturated in residual coconut oil that they couldn’t be recycled. The bags alone were an extra 40 pounds of trash! We tried using big drums of coconut oil, but they were so heavy that it made soapmaking nearly impossible, not to mention, incredibly expensive to ship. Since Gather Green also helps businesses protect their bottom line and keep their revenue streams flowing, we knew that the drum just wasn’t going to work for us in the long term. We had to get creative, so we took it a step further. We decided to decontaminate the bags so they could be recycled, since any soiled items that go into the blue bins will still end up in the landfill. Our next solution involved boiling the bags for a few hours until the residual coconut oil could be released and then composted, and the bags cleaned and reused. This did the trick!
4. We made waste diversion integral to our core company culture.
It became clear from the beginning of our trash audit that we needed every employee at Fillaree on board with our zero waste philosophy. That meant bringing your own lunch in reusable containers and not leaving any trash behind. It meant that our relationships with our vendors needed to follow a similar accord. Even Gather Green wouldn’t set up a Waste Recovery Program at a businesses without knowing that the staff could be onboarded and trained as part of this ethos. Fillaree’s Waste Recovery Station was actually a pilot program for Gather Green, and a successful one at that! Each one of our hardworking employees happily adheres to certain zero waste standards that involve a little extra time, effort, and thoughtfulness—which may seem unusual to some. But for our team, it’s part of a new normal that gets us really excited in knowing that we’re each doing our part to reduce our environmental impact and remain transparent with our consumers.
5. We realized that diverting waste is a full-time job.
Our new creative reuse strategies would not have been possible without Gather Green’s services. I’ve attempted to keep track of my trash and perform an audit myself in the past, but as an owner of a small business and a mother of two, I just did not have the time to sort through everything myself. There’s a great need for services like Gather Green to help individuals and businesses actually pull this off! It takes a lot of time and expertise and sort through each piece of trash and consider where it might be repurposed. Bryce says she encounters this problem often with busy business owners, which is why she’s so committed to her cause. It’s not just about sorting your trash and recycling—it’s about shifting your entire outlook and perception about what trash even is and has the potential to become.
As we look toward a new year and the exciting new decade ahead, we would be remiss if we didn’t take the opportunity to express our gratitude to our amazing local and national community of refillers and subscribers that have sustained us these past five years. While we may still be a small bootstrapped business, we work really hard to be the kind of forward-thinking company our planet needs now more than ever—and we cannot thank you enough for your support.
That’s why we want you to be the first to know that our 100 percent female-owned zero-waste soap factory has developed an exciting new product that will make leading a low-impact lifestyle even easier than ever in 2020—and beyond.
Our newest product, Refillable Condensed Soap, is the next phase evolution of our original all-natural Soap & Suds—an innovative new formula that can produce up to an entire gallon of soap from just a 12 oz. bottle.
We’re launching an all-or-nothing Kickstarter on January 23, 2020, and if we reach our crowdfunding goal of raising $25,000 to make this dream project a reality, we’ve estimated we could divert over 500,000 bottles from the landfill. As the holidays wind down and the calendar turns, the countdown to our Kickstarter launch begins! We hope you’ll stay tuned for more news on this exciting new project and help us spread the word.
In the meantime, here are a few things we’ve accomplished this year here at Fillaree that we’re really proud of—and we’re wishing you all plenty of health, happiness, and sustainability in 2020!
With gratitude,
Alyssa Cherry
CEO/Founder, Fillaree
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1. We diverted over 75,000 plastic bottles from the landfill.
In 2019 we hit a monumental milestone when we calculated that we’ve diverted over 75,000 bottles from the landfill since we first began refilling in 2014. This is why getting our Refillable Condensed Soap Kickstarter funded is so crucial because we have the power to increase our positive environmental impact by 566 percent!
2. We conducted our first-ever trash audit.
Earlier this year, we partnered with Gather Green right here in Durham, a green consulting company that helps businesses divert waste that’s harder to recycle and/or reuse. We believe in transparency, so that’s why we decided to do our first-ever trash audit. And would you believe that the entire Fillaree factory produced only eight pounds of waste for all of 2019?! We’ll be sharing more details about our experience with Gather Green and creative reuse in the new year, so stay tuned.
3. We increased the number of our nationwide refill stations.
Fillaree doubled its number of refill stations in 2019, expanding to 30 across the country with at least half of those stations created in the past year. From North Carolina to New York to California, Iowa, and Minnesota, our community of Refillers has never been stronger—and we’re growing every day.
Our new partnership with The Durham Hotel is really exciting, because a big contract with a big business means that we’re helping reduce an even bigger amount of waste! From our plant-based, palm-free bar soaps to all-natural body wash, and shampoo and conditioner, we’re humbled that The Durham chose Fillaree to provide their soaps—and are so proud that our low-impact mission now has a larger reach as a result.
5. We expanded our plastic-free offerings.
On that note, our addition of natural care for your hair to the Fillaree product line this year was major. We now offer all-natural shampoo and conditioner, which are primarily water-based formulas your hair will love! Our moisturizing shampoo and conditioner comes in an invigorating lemon-lavender scent, and we offer a delightful orange-vanilla option for our conditioner as well.
6. We expanded our storefront hours.
To accommodate an increase in product demand and our in-store offerings, we expanded our Durham storefront hours to four days a week! Our refillable arsenal went from just three products to nine, and includes bulk skin care, deodorant, laundry detergent, and more. We’re now open every Wednesday through Friday from 12–6 p.m. and on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
7. We grew our all-star team by 500 percent!
Fillaree went from just one woman making soap in her crockpot to a team of two over the years, but in 2019, our all-female crew grew to over 10! This dream team consists of artists, scientists, writers, makers, doers, and creators, who have all come together from different backgrounds and expertise in support of a single unified mission: to help make the world a more sustainable place.
Each year, about 95 million Americans put up a Christmas tree in their homes—and there’s plenty of debate about whether Christmas trees are bad for the environment or not. Depending on where you live, you might be able to have your tree composted, incinerated, or turned into mulch. Otherwise, it just ends up in the landfill where it can take several years to decompose.
As for fake Christmas trees, though they might last for a lifetime, they’re made mostly of PVC plastic and other toxic materials, and will inevitably end up in the landfill where they’ll remain for eternity and never decompose. This is why it’s surprising that a 2017 survey conducted by Nielsen found that 81 percent of Americans still have artificial trees. That would mean only 19 percent of households are actually convinced that real trees are better.
And real trees are better. Despite having that trademark “real tree smell,” Christmas tree farms are designed to be sustainable, meaning each time a tree is cut down a new one is planted in its place. But Christmas trees are part of the agricultural industry, one of the world’s top emitters of CO2, which means the Christmas farming process can still leave a significant carbon footprint behind. A Christmas tree requires dirt, water, pesticide, herbicide, and fungicide, and then the trees need to be transported, which of course, burns fossil fuels. A real tree can also take up to six years to fully decompose, so if you do decide to go for the real thing consider dropping it off at a nearby mulching or composting center so that it’s repurposed and returned to mother nature in a timely manner.
Oh, and if you’ve ever considered venturing out to the wilderness and chopping down a tree yourself, please don’t do that—unless you plan on planting a new seedling in its place and nurturing it while it grows. And if you do plan on buying a real tree this year, please try to buy as locally as possible. Why? Because if your tree, as gorgeous as it may be, is coming from, say, our Canadian neighbors up North, it had to travel quite a distance to get to your front door, eh.
That being said, we here at Team Fillaree have chosen to go treeless for the holidays. But before you go thinking we’re a bunch of bah-humbugs and Scrooges, hear us out. Because we’re a crafty, scrappy little bootstrapped business that thrives on doing things ourselves!
Here are three DIY alternatives to a traditional Christmas tree:
Channel your inner Martha Stewart and assemble your own wreath. Pick up a frame from your local garden, flower, or craft store and gather some scrap pine tree trimmings that would have otherwise gone to waste—you can find these at a Christmas tree retailer, hardware store, or even your friendly neighborhood Whole Foods. Lace your pine trimmings directly into the frame and secure it with some sticky green floral tape so it blends in. Add a big red satin bow and whatever other accouterments inspire you like pinecones, ornaments, eucalyptus, flowers, cranberries, and some bright white LED lights to make it sparkle. Hang it indoors or out—and make a few of them so that your holiday home decor really stands out!
If the nostalgia of placing presents beneath a beautifully lit tree fills your heart with so much joy that you can’t bear the thought of a boycott, then look no further than the DIY dowel tree. For the craftier (and handier) among you, pick up a wooden dowel from your local hardware store—similar to a wooden rod in your closet. Determine how tall you’d like your tree to be and then drill a series of holes from the top down at a 45-degree angle (a downward slope), and stagger the holes all the way down the dowel. Make sure your holes are no more than a half-inch deep and about as wide as a slender tree limb. You can whittle your tree limbs down with a pocket knife to make them fit the holes perfectly, FYI. Your tree limbs, like the DIY wreath, will also come from scraps from your vendor of choice. You can also collect fallen branches from your own backyard. Secure the dowel upright with your traditional Christmas tree stand—just wrap it in some fabric (like a tree skirt) to help keep it secure. Add lights, ornaments, and other tree trimmings—and enjoy this unique, Pinterest-worthy crowd-pleasing tree you can reuse again year after year.
One of our all-star dream team members, Amy Jo, has been reusing the same treetop as a funny little Charlie Brown-style Christmas tree for the past two years. So that means if you’ve already bought a full-size tree this year, you can cut off the top and save it for next year as your very own mini, zero-waste Christmas tree. You can also purchase a pre-cut top from your local Christmas tree dealer and reuse it again for next year. Just let it dry out completely in an attic or another warm, dry place in your home. Yes, it will lose all of its needles and look a little sad, but once it’s completely dried out you can paint it and decorate it any way you like. PSA: If any needles remain, be sure to wear protective gloves when you pull them off!
Happy decorating, refillers!
]]>Frank Luca | Unsplash
Thanksgiving is a time to gather with loved ones in celebration of the Earth’s bountiful gifts. It is a moment to recognize abundance — to acknowledge the support we receive from our communities, and in turn, share from the bounty of our resources by giving back to those in need. Just as the holiday serves as a reminder to be grateful for our personal well-being, we’d be remiss to ignore the health of the environment that sustains us and allows us to thrive.
As you consider the many ways you can give back this year, can you also make a commitment to showing your support for Mother Nature?
Leading a sustainable lifestyle has become more accessible than ever, and every little action you take has a big, lasting impact on the planet. We here at Fillaree are on a mission to make our world cleaner and greener through our reduce, reuse, and refill program. And we’d like to express our thanks to our mindful, forward-thinking refillers who are helping us make our low-waste dream a reality!
As you’ve heard us say before, we don’t need a few people doing zero waste perfectly… we need millions and MILLIONS of people who are actively reducing their waste every day.
This Thanksgiving, whether you’ve decided to reduce your carbon footprint and stay home—and maybe Facetime with your family over dessert—or are getting out in nature with your loved ones for a hike or a short camping trip, there are many ways to swap out old holiday habits with new and improved eco-friendly ones.
And since our storefront is open all day Wednesday before the holiday, consider stopping by and picking up a bottle of refillable soap as a gift for your host—and maybe offer to help wash the dishes, too.
Here are nine ways to have your most sustainable Thanksgiving ever.
PSA: Animal agriculture is a top contributor to carbon emissions, with the North Carolina agriculture industry and its hog farms being one of the leading culprits in the country. We’re not saying that everyone should go vegetarian and vegan, but what if everyone simply ate less meat? According to the journal Scientific Reports, if everyone in the U.S. reduced their consumption of animal products by 25 percent, we'd save 82 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year. This holiday, even if you’re not a vegetarian, consider a smaller helping of turkey on your plate. And if you’re hosting, we hope you opted for a pasture-raised turkey from a nearby farm. You could also skip it altogether and pass the Tofurkey!
The future of farming is local. Shopping at your local farmers market or enrolling in a CSA program reduces packaging and transportation costs, which in turn, puts more money back in the pockets of hard working farmers. Local produce is insanely fresh and is generally treated with fewer pesticides since crop yields are smaller. When you cut out the middleman (the distributor), you develop a direct, working relationship with your local farmers. Or, if you’re planning on doing a store bought dessert, find a mom and pop bakery in your neighborhood and support a small business.
Fill two thirds of your plate with green, leafy vegetables—and go easy on those sides disguised as vegetables that are loaded with cream, butter, or sugar. Pro tip: If there’s not enough room on your plate for a pile of salad, go back for seconds and load up with extra greens to help aid in digestion.
We tend to look at Thanksgiving as an excuse to overindulge—and while there’s nothing wrong with splurging a little and enjoying yourself, there can be, of course, too much of a good thing! Save the gluttony and eat slowly, and more mindfully. Savor every bite of deliciousness rather than scarfing it down as fast as you can. Wouldn’t you rather take your sweet time to enjoy the meal you spent all day cooking? There’s no rush—and your belly will thank you for not overstuffing it. Besides, if you avoid that third helping of mashed potatoes, that means there’s more leftovers to go around.
Tell your host to save the Saran wrap and tin foil because you’ve brought your own reusable—hopefully glass—containers or Tupperware. We also love our reusable beeswax and vegan wraps made by Mishka Hands in California.
Make a concerted, conscious effort to produce less waste in any way you can, by composting organic material or making stock from turkey bones and gizzards. You can also set aside many of your non-recyclable plastic waste items and drop them off at a specialty recycling center. (If you live in the Triangle, these bins are available at participating Food Lion and Harris Teeter grocery stores).
This one seems like a given, but sometimes we get so wrapped up in the feast that we forget to give thanks! Go around the dinner table and take turns expressing what you’re thankful for. Remember, what goes around comes around.
On behalf of all of us at Fillaree, we’re wishing you a very happy and low-waste Thanksgiving!
We spend a lot of time in our kitchens: preparing food, cooking food, and sometimes even eating food, depending on the layout of our houses. If you’re concerned about your home’s impact on the environment, you’ll be relieved to know that there are plenty of ways you can make your kitchen a little eco-friendlier. Try the following ideas to get started:
Image Source: Unsplash
Consider your energy sources
Using efficient energy sources will help your kitchen to be more environmentally friendly and can also bring down your electricity bill. To start, you can use energy-saving lightbulbs in your kitchen’s light sources, and install an induction range if you’re remodeling your kitchen.
Reduce your food packaging
It’s far too easy to choose food that comes prepared in layers of plastic packaging, but you’ll be doing the earth a favor by selecting items that are instead wrapped in cardboard or compostable materials. Depending on your area, you may be able to shop at bulk food stores, to which you can bring your own containers and fill them with dry foods like pasta, popcorn seeds, and rice. You’ll likely save money, too – and you just might meet like-minded people who also care for the environment.
Shop at local stores
Reduce your carbon footprint by buying your food from local stores, who in turn stock their shelves with local products. Most food products are labeled with their country or city of origin but don’t be afraid to ask if you can’t figure out where they’re from. Being aware of where your food comes from is an essential step towards being eco-friendly in your everyday life. Once you know where your food comes from, you can make educated decisions on which local farmers you want to support.
Use refillable products
Rather than buying a new product every time you run out of kitchen items like dishwashing liquid, why not refill your existing containers and lessen your impact on the earth? Fillaree offers subscriptions, so refilling your cleaning spray is a breeze. You can also try products like compostable sponges; rather than sending your cleaning products to landfill, you’ll rest easy knowing you’re not causing the earth harm when it comes time to throw them away.
Image Source: Unsplash
Minimise your water waste
It’s far too easy to waste water while cooking or cleaning, but being aware of how much you’re using is the first step. For example, only use your dishwasher when it’s full. You might also like to use motion sensor taps, which can make saving water easy - as soon as the taps sense that your hands are no longer in the sink, they’ll switch themselves off.
Grow your own herbs
Rather than buying fresh herbs at the supermarket or using prepackaged ones, try growing your own. Many common herbs can easily be grown in small pots, requiring little more than occasional watering. Nothing beats the feeling of using herbs from your own little garden when you’re cooking a meal, and they’ll help to brighten up your kitchen, too.
Image Source: Unsplash
Plan ahead
Nearly everybody has discarded forgotten bowls of leftovers or has thrown out extra lettuce or other vegetables that they didn’t get around to using in a meal. To avoid situations such as these, plan your meals for the week ahead of time whenever you can. Remember to factor in any social plans or work lunches, and prepare any work lunches or snack beforehand so you don’t end up with leftover food that you can’t use.
An eco-friendly kitchen is a perfectly attainable goal. Even merely changing a few of your habits will help you to head in the right direction. Do your part for the earth and make your kitchen a more sustainable place.
Cloe is passionate about looking for ways to lead a more environmentally-responsible life. She believes there is no better place to start living ‘green’ than in your own home. Over the years, she has worked with various sites and blogs, writing articles for business and technology sites such as Trustpower. You can read more of Cloe’s work on Tumblr.
]]>We write to you today to recap all of our accomplishments together in 2018. In April, we extended our community of waste-battling refillers, able to access a full suite of zero waste products for the home and body, by adding a subscription program for Soap + Suds Hand and Body Wash, Clean Plate Club and Clean Dream. This was no easy task but together with a few brave first subscribers we successfully got this program off the ground and are now providing households from San Francisco to Arkansas with zero waste bath and cleaning products.
In October, after 5 years of making soap by hand on an antique stove and growing steadily as a community, we were able to invest in our infrastructure and add a 65-gallon soap-making tank. One small step for our big mission to reach more supporters and reduce waste in our communities!
The fall was a busy time for us. With our subscription program running for several months at that point we began to learn from our first subscribers and built a refill starter pack based on their needs (if it doesn’t exist go build it!). With the help of our trusty tank, we were able to provide the starter pack for a good value–to encouraging new customers to take up a refillable way of life and make sure all their needs are covered.
32 OZ Returnable Refill bottle full of Soap + Suds
*16 Oz Body Wash Soap + Suds
*8 OZ (EMPTY ) Glass Bottle, this enables you to start refilling right away
*Black Compostable Shower Sponge
*Stainless Steel Funnel
*$75 in value for only $50!!!!
We also expanded our selection of Nalgene jugs to add to the joy of refilling: our BPA free Nalgenes now come in an array of colors to differentiate your refill liquid bottles in your cabinet.
Last but not least: We added Zero Waste Home Goods to the Fillaree Storefront for those of us looking to curb some habits in our daily lives to make anything from making coffee to eating on-the-go less waste generating.
Come by the Fillaree Storefront Saturdays 10am-4pm to stock up for your waste reducing New Years resolutions or do some last minute holiday shopping Friday December 21st from 10am-2pm or during our annual Procrastinator’s Pop-Up, Saturday December 22nd from 10am-2pm.
We have you to thank for all this progress. The climb towards sustainability is steep but we will get there one single-use plastic bottle, straw, fork, or bag not used, left right where it is – to send a message to its maker, to its vendor: “we no longer want this.”
A special thank you to the early adopters of our subscription program that is now 9 months old. Because of you, we estimate that we have been able to keep over 10,000 plastic bottles out of the landfill. We hope you can help us find more people like you who love our planet, want to reduce their impact and haven't yet heard of Fillaree.
Consider helping us reach our goal of getting 25 more subscribers before the end of the year by spreading the word and offering friends, family, and coworkers 10% off with the discount code EARLYADOPTER.
We look forward to great things together in 2019.
THANK YOU so much for all your support to help us get here. Together we will lead the way to a less wasteful future. May your holiday be filled with Peace, Light(weight living), and Love.
Sincerely,
The Fillaree Team
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This week we are writing to you in celebration of International Handwashing Day. As a company that makes and sells handmade, zero-waste soaps, handwashing is something we are uniquely jazzed up about. In commemoration of International Handwashing Day we are collaborating with the Durham-based organization–Mali Health by doing what we do best: making soap. We have handcrafted a Mali-inspired bar soap and will be donating 100% of the profits to Mali Health, which works to improve health for women and children in Mali, West Africa.
Handwashing is something a lot of us in the U.S. take for granted because we’ve been doing it for so long, perhaps we forget that there are communities where it is hard to buy or find soap. Handwashing with soap is one of the single most important things people can do for their health, around the world. In Mali, 1 in 9 children will die before the age of 5 from mostly preventable diseases. Handwashing is an extremely effective and inexpensive way to prevent common causes of death such as diarrhea and pneumonia.
To remember how important this basic act is and to stand in solidarity with women and children in Mali and other parts of the world where basic health necessities are lacking, please learn more about our collaboration, participate in the naming process and pre-order a bar of soap here.
You can purchase a bar on our website and in our store November 1st.
Not only will you have a feel-good suds up with your life-giving bar soap, you will get to experience the sensation and aromatic scents of ingredients found in Mali including coconut oil, shea butter, mint, and eucalyptus.
We are a company founded by a mother of two small children and we care about the health of women and children in all parts of the world. Thank you for joining us to lend a hand to women and children in need.
Today we are writing to those of you who have been wondering why Durham is our home and where we fit in this unlikely hub of waste-battling activism. Durham, North Carolina is bustling with groups taking action with big thinking ideas to combat waste. True to our community’s nature, these groups are tackling our day-to-day problems such as throwing things out that could be reused, recycled or composted or getting takeout in single-use containers. There is no glamour in this work and yet a handful of groups have battled away at these issues to create beauty where there was waste, and smart solutions to the harmful byproducts of our everyday habits that respond to our need for convenience in our busy lives.
Photo courtesy of the Scrap Exchange
#1) The Re-Use Arts District & The Scrap Exchange
The Re-Use Arts District is a beautiful illustration of waste and re-use as fuel for creativity, which is at the heart of Durham’s secret power to lead the country in zero waste and reuse activity. The Scrap Exchange predates the arts district taking most any type of item people usually toss out and fill our landfills with. They sort, organize, and house them in a fun, creative space where people can come and gather supplies to build, make and craft. The Scrap Exchange even offers sewing classes and hosts crafting workshops for parties utilizing the materials that were destined for the landfill.
Photo courtesy of Freeman's Creative
This big idea grew and now the Scrap Exchange has taken over the shopping center. You can park your car (or bicycle!) and walk from place to place, picking up materials like fabric from the Scrap Exchange, home decorating items and clothing from their new thrift store and walk them over to an amazing community gem–the Freeman’s Creative–where you can top your items off with crafting supplies you need or attend workshops on sewing or fabric dying, or participate in a fantastic clothing swap where there is screen printing and machines for repairs.
Photo courtesy of GreenTogo
#2) GreenTogo/Don’t Waste Durham
GreenTogo is the waste-fighting hero for Durham’s foodies who fret over the impact their single-use to go containers are having on Mother Earth. Their unstoppable team has pioneered a subscription service where you pick up your to go food in reusable, BPA-free boxes, and return containers to drop off boxes around town. After successfully battling innumerable challenges launching GreenTogo in Durham, GreenTogo is now fielding requests from cities around the country to bring this Durham-based solution to their communities. Fillaree proudly serves on the Don’t Waste Durham/GreenTogo board and has a business membership to keep our team waste-free as we fuel up with local goodies throughout the day.
#3) Fillaree(!)
Fillaree is beyond proud to be born and raised in Durham. Fillaree came to life with the support of Durham’s progressive, caring, sustainability-minded community members. Reuse through Refill seemed like a brand new idea back in 2013 and the people of Durham told us: “Bring it on!” We make all of our products here in Durham and work our butts off to deliver our innovative solution to keep household plastic waste out of our landfills and oceans and toxins off our bodies and out of our water systems. Like our waste-fighting allies, we sought to create beauty and use creativity to fight the major challenges we saw in the world by creating aromatic, naturally scented bath, body and cleaning products. It didn’t matter that there wasn’t any roadmap to follow when building our refillable model for our products. We took it one bottle, one challenge at a time and built our vision. After all, we are Durhamites! Fillaree is the only company is the U.S. that creates and hand-makes our products with a clear mission to make reuse and refill accessible and convenient for all. We Love our Bull City.
Green Team Leader, Muriel Williman (right) and super-volunteer, Sandy Skolochenko (left)
#4) The Green Team: Zero Waste Events
An often-overlooked area of waste reduction is events. Can you picture a time when you’ve walked by the trash area at a festival and saw overflowing trash bins from water bottles, soda cups and bits of trash from food vendors exploding onto the ground? Yep, you know as well as we do that events create a lot of trash. Thankfully in Durham, we have dozens of volunteers that work their tails off with the Green Team. The Green Team arrives at events and quite literally works around the clock to divert tons of waste from going to landfills from events such as The Full Frame Film Festival or the Durham-based Eno River Festival, mother of all trash-free festivals in the U.S. Literally.
Photo courtesy of Compost Now
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Photo courtesy of Ungraded Produce
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As a thank you and welcome to our Fillaree family, here is the discount code you have been waiting for:
Use this link to take $5 off anything in our online shop with the FILLAREEFAMILY discount.
Happy Refilling to our fellow waste warriors taking action to Reduce & Reuse!
Alyssa and her family on opening night
Hang around the store on a Saturday afternoon and you will get to see all the people carving out precious time on their weekend to be part of the refill revolution, grateful that someone has answered their prayers to refill. No longer are we battling with and scowling at our empty plastic bottles in our homes and wondering why the heck no one has figured out something better. Rather, we are taking charge, making the time and effort to consume all natural personal care products in a better way: the refill way. We are a community, coalescing around this new way forward in a physical space.
Community success at the DIY Deodorant Workshop
But the fun does not end at refilling. The Fillaree storefront has become the community space founder, Alyssa Cherry, had envisioned. DIY deodorant workshops, a vegan challenge award dinner with live music, We Collective meetings for local women entrepreneurs, Don’t Waste Durham committee meetings, and a Dress for Success Fundraiser to outfit domestic violence survivors in professional clothing. At the Fillaree storefront there is no limit to supporting green action, local makers, sustainable living or community members in need.
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Image courtesy of Michalis Koulieris
And then Alyssa’s mom was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, which pushed her to dig deep into learning about the toxins in bath and cleaning products. There she learned that even “green” products contained dangerous carcinogens. A mother of two young children at the time, Alyssa was determined to keep carcinogens out of her home. Finding no good alternatives, Alyssa decided to try making her own products. And she wanted to make sure that she created a product that would minimize the amount of plastic waste created as people used it. The best way to do this was to make sure that her customers never needed to throw out the vessels her products came in.
Alyssa with her mom, Karen Callahan
In April of 2014, Alyssa founded Fillaree, with the mission of helping customers reduce their home’s plastic waste, while providing beautiful, natural, earth and body friendly bath and cleaning products. Alyssa convinced local companies throughout the triangle to install refill stations, and local businesses to end plastic wasted from soap and refill bottles in their restrooms and instead provide customers with beautiful hand soaps to use (who doesn’t like washing their hands with a beautifully scented handmade product versus a bright pink chemical goop?).
Lest this all sound like an easy peasy progression, we will return for a moment to Alyssa’s role as a Mermaid Warrior. Taking action and creating a business to solve a problem, defending our oceans from plastic, and our loved ones from toxic chemicals, is a fight against the status quo. It is not easy. It is a battle won day to day, today a new refill subscriber, tomorrow a customer at our storefront energized by taking back their power to stop contributing to plastic waste.
It takes courage and determination and insane energy. If you’ve had the pleasure to meet Alyssa, she’s got all these things. And she is no longer battling alone in her kitchen concocting her own soaps. In building Fillaree, she built her community.
Little by little, together we are creating it. And we are continuing to learn from you how to accomplish our mission together. We have heard how busy you are, and are now providing subscriptions for Soap + Suds, Clean Dream Spray, and Clean Plate Club Dish Soap directly to your home.
LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR SUBSCRIPTIONS
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Why should I bring my own takeaway mug to the coffee shop, when I can just use and toss the paper ones they provide? Can’t I just recycle those plastic shampoo bottles when they’re empty? Why should I invest in handmade clothing, when there are cheaper, trendier options available?
Questions like these are common, and they aren’t always easy to answer. Even eco-warriors may tire of justifying their choices when asked.
Don’t give up yet. These six simple organizing swaps will make running your green home way easier. They’re all courtesy of MakeSpace, a full-service alternative to self-storage units in NYC, DC, Chicago, and Los Angeles.
Implement these, and save yourself some energy for fighting the good fight.
The problem: You want to avoid the earth- and health-threatening toxins so rampant in conventional cleaners. But you also want to make sure your home gets as clean as possible.
The solution: Replace any single-use wipes and plastic bottle sprays with reusable cloths and natural cleaners. Vinegar, for example, works just as effectively for common household problems as bleach does, without running the risk of infiltrating your home with waste and toxins.
Plus, if you’re the type of person who tosses an entire bottle when it’s close to empty, you’ll be cutting down your personal waste. Instead of recycling plastic bottles, refill them.
As for organizing the products? Fillaree cleaning products are pretty enough to keep out on display. Leave them on a sink-side cruet, like Megan from Honey We’re Home does, to make dishwashing feel all the more glamorous.
Or corral everything you need into a caddy for easy transporting around the house. Keep it stocked with microfiber cloths, multipurpose spray, a compostable brush, and any other tools.
Americans throw away 2.5 million plastic bottles per hour. When you switch to bulk shower products that are refillable, you’re doing your part to cut that number down.
Store your reusable bottles in a hanging caddy, just as you would with disposable bottles. A caddy is the perfect nook for your shampoo, conditioner, and moisturizing body wash. You can also store your bath salts there, to keep the jar dry between uses.
The average American family wastes almost half of the food it purchases. To cut down your family’s own “foodprint,” consider these three sustainable alternatives:
To prevent your pantry from turning into an all-too-familiar jumble of containers and lids, you can DIY a pull-out pegboard drawer.
Dish soap in a reusable bottle is also good for you, your loved ones, your dishes, and the planet.
Or, want to build your own compost bin? Here’s how.
Oh, and move your fridge and freezer out of direct sunlight. Otherwise, according to HuffPost, both appliances will have to work harder (and consume more energy) to keep cool.
Via Julie Blanner
The only thing better than homemade pesto? Homemade pesto that’s been whipped up with … some homegrown basil.
If you have a window in your kitchen, then you have the perfect nook for growing an indoor herb garden. You can even repurpose tea tins for the pots.
You might need to declutter your counter to make room for the garden. Thinking about those delicious mint juleps and oregano-infused pasta sauces you’ll soon concoct, along with the surprising ways clutter can ruin your life, should be incentive enough.
As we noted in “13 Extremely Easy Eco-Friendly Organizing Tips For Your Home,” a reuse bin is a handy way to keep track of items without a place in your home, and remind yourself to deal with them.
Here’s how it works:
“Create a drop-off zone in your home for items you want to reuse, whether by donating, repurposing, or upcycling them. You can toss in clothes, shoes, books, stationary containers, candle jars, mint tins, jewelry boxes, or anything else you think could be given a second life.
Just remember: The reuse bin is supposed to help you stay organized. At least once a month, make a date with yourself to sort through the bin and decide what to do with each item.”
Which brings us to #6 …
Think twice before sending items that you no longer have the need, or space for, in your home to the landfill.
After decluttering, you could hold a yard sale, or sell stuff online with an app like OfferUp. Or donate each item to the appropriate charity.
Consider upcycling, too. Here are 19 surprisingly creative ways to upcycle items you were about to toss.
It ain’t easy being green, but it doesn’t have to be impossible. With these simple swaps, you’ll relieve some of the pressure for yourself and the planet.
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