June 16, World Refill Day, is coming up and I would like to take this opportunity to dive into the benefits of refills over landfills.

World Refill Day

World Refill Day is a global campaign to prevent plastic pollution and help people produce less waste. We live in a world of convenience, where we take non-renewable natural resources from the ground, make stuff, use them - sometimes just for a few minutes - and throw them away. In the U.S., we are generating about 110 lbs of throwaway plastic a year, per person. 

We have been taught that plastic wasn’t so much of a problem because we just needed to “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle”. The problem is that we know now that recycling plastic does not work. 

According to the Last Beach Cleanup and Beyond Plastics last report, only 5 to 6% of plastic waste gets recycled in the US. The problem with plastic recycling is the material in itself. The qualities of plastic that we appreciate so much - its lightweight, insulation, resistance, shapes… - come with hundreds of different chemical additives and colorants which make plastics practically impossible to properly sort out, separate and recycle. Manufacturing new plastic products is actually way cheaper than recycling used ones.

That throwaway culture is damaging our beautiful planet and our very own existence. We have to turn off the tap of disposables and think reusables and refillables instead. One way to drastically reduce your consumption of plastic is to lower our need for new packaging and containers by buying in bulk and refilling the containers we already have.

What is a refillery?

If you shop at Whole Foods, Sprout or Earth Fare, you already are familiar with bulk where you can purchase food and pay by the ounce or pound. 

A refillery, refill station, refill shop, zero waste shop - whatever you call it - provides the same service but for your home and personal care products. Think about that bottle of dish soap or shampoo you are about to throw away, it can be reused and refilled!

Actually, 550 million empty shampoo bottles are thrown away each year in the US alone. That number does not include conditioner, lotion, shower gel bottles…

By reusing and refilling your bottles, you not only save plastic from the landfill but you also save energy, transportation, packaging, natural resources and you support your local economy.

At Ekologicall, we have carefully curated a selection of home and body care products that are free of harmful chemicals. We do the research so you don’t have to. Those products are made by small businesses that we source as local as possible. One of our hand and body soap best seller is made in Durham, NC by Fillaree, a women-owned small business. Our wonderful laundry powder is made in Chicago, IL by a couple of engineers who wanted to make clean cleaning products and created Meliora. We went a little bit further for the best hair and body care products and chose Oneka, in Quebec, Canada. Philippe and Stacey grow wild plants on their family farm, using the principles of permaculture and regenerative agriculture. That's just a few examples of the amazing companies we work with and we are very proud of it.

What is a closed-loop system?

Like some grocery stores allow you to buy in bulk, a refillery allows you to refill your containers with home and body care products, but better! Indeed, Zero Waste shop owners have the people and the planet first in mind, profit is also part of the equation for them to live, but honestly if we were doing what we do for the money, we would probably do something else. That being said, what does it mean to care for the people and the planet? 

To Ekologicall, that means that we want to lower our impact on the planet, reduce the amount of waste we produce as well as our carbon footprint while making it easy, safe and convenient for the people.

Sourcing our products from local vendors is part of our effort but when our refillable products come in containers that can be reused again and again, it’s even better.

Ekologicall receives most of its refillable products - it can be in the form of liquid but also of powder or cream -  in large 5 gallons containers. Once those big jugs are empty, we send them back to our partners, who sanitize them and put them back in use for new orders. That’s what we call a closed-loop system. 

Some other partners we work with don’t take back their big containers but send us big plastic pouches to refill our 5 gallons buckets. Once those pouches are empty, we send them back to the manufacturers to be cleaned and put back into circulation. Even if those pouches are made of plastic, the emissions to transport lightweight plastic pouches are less than transporting big containers so it's still better for the environment.

Only a couple of our partners don’t take their containers back. In this case, we offer these for free on FB Buy Nothing groups.

If you are not sure that your local refillery participates in a packaging closed-loop system or not, simply ask them. 

How does refill work?

Refilling your containers is easy but it will obviously require a little more effort than just grabbing a new bottle from the shelf at the grocery store. 

Here are the steps:

1. Select the product you would like to buy

Ekologicall offers a wide range of refillable home and personal care products: 

• Shampoo, conditioner
• Shower gel
• Body lotion
• Hand soap
• Face cream
• Jojoba oil, sweet almond oil
• Dish soap
• Dishwasher pods
• Laundry detergent: powder, sheets, pods and liquid
• All-purpose cleaner
• Castile soap
• Distilled white vinegar
• Vegetable wash
• Pet SOS cleaner
• Make-up brush cleaner

The list with all the scents available can be found here.

If you don’t see the product you are looking for, feel free to reach out to me, Valerie, I will be happy to add that product to our selection if there is enough demand.

We can’t bring all of our products to the market so to make sure we bring what you need, please contact us at contact@ekologicall or through DM on social media @ekologicall.

2. Prepare your containers (or not)

You can use any type of container for your refills. It can be an old plastic bottle, a glass jar, or a metal container. As long as it is clean and dry, we are happy to refill it.

If you don’t have a container, you can either purchase the product in its original packaging or you can borrow one from our donated ones.

If your order is home delivered, put your empty containers outside your front door and we will take care of the rest. If you need us to provide you with a container, add it to your order or let us know you’d like one of the repurposed jars. 

3. Tare your containers

Your container(s) will be tared, that means that the scale will be set to zero. So only the weight of the product you need will be weighted.

4. Fill them up

We will fill up your container(s) with the product of your choice. This can be done at the market or directly at your doorstep.

 5. Re-weight your containers

Once the container is filled up, we weigh it again and get the number of ounces you wanted. 

6. Pay

You only pay for the number of ounces you need, not the weight of the container. 

For our home delivery service, you have two options available:

1. You know how many ounces of product you need and directly place the order online
2. You don’t how many ounces your container holds, in this case, we will refill your container(s) and send you the invoice via email.

 7. Enjoy and repeat! 

You’ve just saved a container or several from the landfill, reduced carbon emissions and supported a small business, you deserve a high five! 

Once those containers are empty, you just repeat the above again and again!

Ekologicall will soon be offering a subscription program where you can select the refill you need, how often you need it and save money! Stay on the lookout for more information.

The process can be different from one refillery to another so make sure to check your zero waste website or reach out to them directly for more information.

What about food pantry items?

As mentioned earlier, grocery stores such as Whole Foods, Sprout, Earth Fare or the Fresh Market offer a selection a products available in bulk. Some stores allow you to bring your own containers to the deli shop so you don't need the plastic and paper to wrap meat or fish.

For Charlotteans, check our sustainable guide that includes a list of stores that will help you reduce the packaging of your food and more. For our readers outside of Charlotte, NC, check LitterLess.com

Have you already joined the Refill Revolution? What is your experience so far? If not, what prevents you from it?

At Ekologicall, minimizing waste is at the heart of our mission. We offer sustainable products that can be reused, refilled and/or composted at the end.

But there's a lot of behind the scenes happening too:

- We only work with companies who have the same ethics and vision for the environment as we do. For instance, the products are shipped plastic free.
- We reuse shipping material to ship our orders: cardboard boxes, paper, soluble corn starch peanuts, shredded paper... Our packages are probably not the prettiest ones but they have a lower impact on our environment and that's what matters to us.
- Our Refillery works in a closed loop. That means that our partners will take their containers back, wash them, sanitize them and use them again and again. For the ones who don't take their large containers back, they send us large pouches to refill those big jugs. We, then, rinse them and send them back to our partners who will wash them, sanitize them and reuse them for other clients.
- During home deliveries, we happily collect your #5 clean plastic so it can be repurposed @innovationbarnclt
- At the market, you probably have noticed our "fancy price tags", as I like to call them. That's another way to repurpose cardboard boxes.
- We love wrapping presents for your loved ones. Again, we use shipping material but I promise they look great!
- When buying in person, we will first ask you if you need a bag. If you do, we will offer you a paper bag made from post consumer recycled paper.
- If you want one of our business cards (you can always take a picture instead), our cards are printed with post-consumer recycled paper as well.
- We collect glass jars, remove the stickers and the glue, wash them thoroughly and use them for your refills when you don't bring your own jars.

We are not perfect but we try to do our best to keep this planet healthy and inhabitable.

Tell us in the comments if there's something else you would like to see us do or not do!

One of my favorite things about running Ekologicall is getting the chance to work with amazing brands and small businesses; I meet so many great people who are committed to make a positive impact by offering products or services that contribute to a more sustainable lifestyle.

Today I want to introduce you to Brodie Levadnuk, President - CEO of ZolaTerra, a local small business.

I currently live in Matthews, NC and am happily married with one daughter and two fur babies. I spent years in Corporate America in a wide variety of roles where I gained a lot of experience with the consumer product marketplace and business development strategies.  I have always wanted to go down the entrepreneurial path and build a company from the ground up, so I leveraged my prior experience to develop and launch ZolaTerra.

I have an overwhelming passion to help people, businesses and the Earth in any way I can.  Starting my business over five years ago, my main tenants were, and continue to be, to treat customers in a moral and ethical manner and create healthy living and healthy lifestyle brands that are good for the Earth.  My first product launch is ZolaTerra.  

At ZolaTerra, our mission is to create healthy living and lifestyle products that are safe for people, plants, animals and the environment. Keeping things simple and straightforward, you can trust our products to keep your space clean and promote a healthy living environment for everyone.

ZolaTerra’s products are plant-based, vegan, cruelty free, biodegradable, non-toxic and safe to use around children and pets. Our wide product line covers a variety of applications from household, pet and office cleaning to industrial cleaners and degreasers.

ZolaTerra is a plant-based cleaner that is perfect for environmentally conscious companies and people who value sustainability and eco-friendly solutions.  We aim to eliminate one of the most hazardous items from a business or home.

ZolaTerra is a plant-based cleaner that is non-toxic, non-flammable, non-corrosive and does not contain caustic or abrasive materials. Our products, even in a concentrated state, are safe for the skin with virtually no odor and do not require gloves, respirators or special handling.

ZolaTerra works on a microscopic level using a combination of plant-based solvents, micelles and de-scalers to safely remove all types of grime, from a surface or substrate. ZolaTerra effectively cleans while near or practically at neutral pH. Simply stated, ZolaTerra lifts grime to easily wipe, scrub and rinse it away. 

Unlike other "green" products in the market, ZolaTerra is the only plant-based, biodegradable, food safe cleaning product line certified with the NSF Non-Food Compound Product Registration, USDA Certified Biobased Product designation and contributes towards LEED certification points & Materials and Resources Credits.  

As you know, at ZolaTerra, we aim to replace all types of caustic cleaners (such as bleach) with plant-based, more organic, safe and environmentally friendly products.  To prove this, we have received our NSF certification, which means our products can be used around food contact surfaces and the USDA Biopreferred designation, which means ZolaTerra is readily biodegradable.  Our ingredients are not listed on the California Proposition 65 list, and our surfactants are listed on the CleanGredients list, the EPAs’s published list of clean, safe ingredients for products to become Safter Choice certified (in process for ZolaTerra.)  We value the safety of our products and not using ingredients that are caustic or chlorine based is a large part of that effort.  We ensure our products, bottles, labels, etc. are cruelty-free and not tested on animals, which is why we also have the PETA and Leaping Bunny designations.

Mineral free water, which is a key foundation and equates to about 95-98% of the product, is simply water without any minerals.  It is extremely pure, with no additives at all. Our ionic and non-ionic surfactants is just a fancy word for soap. We blend non-ionic surfactants, which help detach grime from a surface, with an ionic surfactant (or liquid soap), which helps to pull away and suspend the grime. Our plant-based solvent is naturally distilled from plants to help dissolve and remove grime. These ingredients work synergistically and are much, much stronger together to get the cleaning done!  These aren’t new super ingredients, but the way we blend them together allows each ingredient to work at its strongest, and is what makes ZolaTerra uniquely powerful and safe for you, your family, your pets and the Earth.

There are many different direct and indirect ways ZolaTerra can help prevent or reduce waste.

Directly, ZolaTerra purchases and reuses recycled materials for our pails, bottles, sprayers, labels, boxes and especially packaging material.  For our industrial customers, we sell them concentrate and provide education on how to best dilute it for their application.  This saves on shipping, fuel and the amount of product purchased.  

Additionally, we look for partnerships with small businesses, like Ekologicall, that share our passion for reducing waste through reusing and recycling plastic. By providing customers a way to refill and reuse their bottles, Ekologicall is the perfect example of how these partnerships help to reduce the number of plastic bottles in landfills. 

Indirectly, ZolaTerra is safe for all surfaces, is readily biodegradable, meets all OSHA and EPA regulations and is accredited by the EPA’s Bio-Based Program. Independent lab testing confirmed that ZolaTerra products are safe when discharged with wastewater and reduce the chemical and biological load upon municipal sewer systems, making it easier for them to process waste.  

For industrial applications, ZolaTerra cleans at a lower temperature versus traditional cleaning methods, reducing the impact of energy consumption on the environment.

We just launched a new eyeglass lens cleaner and are working on developing a new disinfectant.  Creating a safe, non-chlorine-based disinfectant that works with our formula is a challenge, but we expect to have a product solution and sanitation certification shortly.  

Follow us @zolaterraclean on Facebook and Instagram to stay up to date on our latest product developments!

Find ZolaTerra products at Ekologicall.com here, at the South End Market every Saturday mornings or delivered right to your door.

As we celebrate World Water Day, here are some ideas for plant lovers to reduce their water footprint:

- Reuse household water: save cold water that typically runs down the drain while you wait for hot, save your cooking water when steam or boil vegetables, it’s full of nutrients! Reuse fish tank water if you have one. Put a bucket or two in the bottom of your shower, while the water is heating up. If you use eco-friendly products, you can even use your grey water.

- Install a rain barrel: it can save around 1,300 gallons of water for outdoors use during the peak summer months.

- Mindful lawn care: Don't rely solely on the set up of your irrigation system. If it’s raining or if we just had heavy rain, there's no need to let your automatic sprinklers go off. Mow your lawn high for stronger roots and increased moisture. 

- Landscape with conservation in mind: have you heard about xeriscaping? It’s the process of landscaping, or gardening with minimal use of water. Introduce plant species like shrubs and trees, and used native plants. Use porous materials when designing outdoor living areas. You will not only save water and money but also protect the environment by using less to no pesticides and fertilizer, and attract pollinators. You can also practice hydrozoning, or grouping plants together based on their soil, sun and watering needs. 

- Composting and mulching: composting is one of the best additives to soil because it helps to retain water in sandy soils and improve drainage in clay soils. Covering your soil and plants with 2 to 3 inches of mulch. It will reduce water evaporation, help retail soil moisture and also reduce weed sprouting.

- Water at the right time of the day: in the early morning or late evening to reduce evaporation loss. 

Calculate your water footprint and discover ways to reduce it: https://www.watercalculator.org/wfc2/q/household/

Is your goal for 2021 to reduce the amount of waste you create? Start with a Waste Audit!

Black Friday is a concept born in the USA and continues to spread all over the world. It marks the beginning of the Christmas shopping season and bargain hunting, encouraging overproduction and overconsumption without worrying about its environmental impact. Some are not fooled and counterattack by pleading for a Green Friday.

The origins of Black Friday

The origin of the term “Black Friday” as we know it today goes back to the 50's in Philadelphia. It was invented by the city police who dreaded the day after Thanksgiving, the last Thursday in November. Indeed, this day officially opens the Christmas shopping season and the approach of the Army-Navy football game. An impressive crowd would then come to town causing terrible traffic jams, traffic accidents, crowded sidewalks, shoplifting and other scenes of violence. No need to tell you that the term Black Friday did not have a positive connotation. The brands tried to change the term in vain. With all of the sales made, the Friday after Thanksgiving has become one of the most profitable days of the year. And because accountants used black ink to signify profit when recording each day's entries (and red to indicate loss), the name ultimately stuck...

Today, Black Friday has become a real tradition and has spread around the world. This is THE day of discounted deals! In fact, the sales now run from Thanksgiving until the following Monday. Monday is called Cyber ​​Monday, the day for exclusively online promotions, and has even overtaken Black Friday in terms of revenue.

In 2019, Black Friday weekend generated $25 billion in the United States. An increasing share of the sales is now done online which unfortunately does not prevent scenes of hysteria in stores where some come to hands for a television or a simple sweater... 2020 will probably be different on this point and it is good news!

Black Friday: a real bargain?

Although Black Friday remains a day of incredible promotions, some consumers are increasingly skeptical of this phenomenon. With sales all year round, sometimes slashing prices up to 80%, you end up wondering what the real price of a product is and if we are not just getting ripped off the rest of the year.

But more importantly, the awareness of climate change, the impact of hyper-consumption on our natural resources and on our environment is giving rise to more and more reflection.

Black Friday is responsible for tons of greenhouse gas emissions, due to the traffic of clients to the malls but also to the transportation of millions of packages home delivered, not to mention the waste produced by packaging and the accumulation of unnecessary products that will eventually be thrown in the trash.

If we take the example of textile, the 3rd most polluting industry in the world, this represents huge amounts of poor quality clothing, made from plastic (nylon, polyester, acrylic or polyamide) which requires toxic chemicals during their manufacturing process, polluting the air, the rivers but also the soils and the oceans once discarded. I was shocked to learn that in the United States clothes are on average worn 5-7 times before being put in the trash and that 60% of clothes are thrown away within a year of manufacture! To this incredible waste is added the working conditions and exploitation of textile workers (women and even children).

Facing this (literally) black Friday for the environment, new movements want to take the opposite view of Black Friday such as the “Buy Nothing Day” born in Canada in 1992 or the “Small Business Saturday” which encourages to support small local businesses. But it is above all “Green Friday” that has been gaining ground in recent years.

What do we do for Green Friday?

Green Friday aims to make as many people as possible aware of the dangers of overproduction and overconsumption and offers alternatives. Here are a few examples to consider:

- We go outside! But we are not going to lock ourselves up in the stores, we go outside to reconnect with nature by taking a good breath of fresh air in the forest, at the sea, in the mountains. I guarantee you a much higher level of happiness than if you buy the latest gadget at half price.

- If you want to do your Christmas shopping or treat yourself, prefer local shops, small businesses and responsible and sustainable products! Visit second-hand websites, there are new or very good quality items at low prices.

- Take part in a waste collection in the forest, on a beach or even in your neighborhood. 

- Take online classes to learn how to sew, repair household appliances, cook, grow your own food...

The idea here is not to make consumers feel guilty but to make them think about what they really need, to buy responsibly and thus push companies to change their practices.

So, are you ready to make Black Friday green?

Are you getting ready for Halloween? 

I don't know what Halloween 2020 will look like with Covid but here are a few tips to celebrate in a more sustainable way:

🍬Candies: prefer the ones that are paper-packaging like Pixie Sticks, Nerds, Junior Mints, Milk Duds or foil-packaged like the Hershey’s Kisses. Probably less popular but so much healthier, clementines, tangerines or apples are also great alternatives. Give your extra candies to the troops via the Halloween Candy Buyback Program, your dentist might collect them. Again, it's 2020 so that might be different this year.

💀Decoration: Use natural decor, reuse what you already have and check thrift stores and second-hand markets if you need more. Avoid cheap plastic or synthetic decorations that won't last and cannot be recycled.

👻Costume: buy second-hand, swap costumes with family and friends, rent or DIY with what you already have. Avoid costumes made with PVC/vinyl which most likely contain phthalates which are endocrine disruptors and will stay forever in the landfill. This year make sure to wear a face mask, not on top, not under your costume, nor a costume mask in lieu of a cloth mask, instead find pretty halloween face masks on Etsy for instance.

🎃Pumpkins: grow yours or buy local. Once they've served their duty, make a soup, a pie, a smoothie out of your pumpkin. Roast the seeds. Turn carved pumpkins into bird feeders or donate them to a zoo, a farm rescue, an animal sanctuary, a local farmer or compost them.

The CDC does not recommend “traditional trick-or-treating” and consider it high risk. Halloween has been and might be cancelled in some states. We will have to find new ways to celebrate this year - the #candychute is getting very popular.

In all cases, stay safe!

When embarking on a less wasteful lifestyle, the 5 steps described by Bea Johnson, one the pioneers of the Zero Waste movement, are very inspirational and to be kept in mind: 

• Refuse what we do not need

• Reduce what we do need

• Reuse what we already have

• Recycle what we can't refuse, reduce and reuse

• Rot the rest

REFUSE WHAT WE DO NOT NEED

REDUCE WHAT WE DO NEED

REUSE WHAT WE ALREADY HAVE

The 3rd R identified by Bea Johnson @zerowastehome, who popularized Zero Waste Living, is #reuse.
Reuse anything that we can, repair what can be fixed, give a second life to things, repurpose instead of throwing away.

The possibilities are endless and I can't list them all but here are the ones you can start with:
- Reusable bags to do your shopping 
- Reusable produce bags for your fruits and veggies, bulk grains, cereals...
- Reusable water bottle
- Reusable cup/mug
- Reusable utensils for work lunch, take out or picnic
- Reusable cloth towels and napkins
- Reusable food wraps
- Reusable snack bags 
- Reusable rags to clean the kitchen and the floors

If you are ready to go a little bit further:
- Refill your shampoo, conditioner, shower gel, body lotion, laundry detergent, dish soap containers
- Buy second hand
- Repair electronics, shoes, mend clothes...
- Borrow, rent what you won't use on a regular basis
- Use handkerchiefs 
- Use reusable menstrual pads and/or a cup
- Use a safety razor
- Make vegetable stock with your vegetable scraps. There are many DIY recipes to use our food scraps
- Use rechargeable batteries
- Reuse pasta sauce glass containers to freeze leftover food. And any other containers to store odds and ends.

By skipping the disposables, taking care and reusing what we have, we reduce drastically the amount of waste that we produce, we limit the extraction of natural resources and save money. Bonus: we become very creative!

RECYCLE WHAT WE CANNOT REFUSE, REDUCE, REUSE

Once we've refused single-use plastics, reduced the things we don't really need, reused what we have, then the 4th "R" - Recycling gets pretty easy as we have already eliminated a lot of waste.

We've been made to believe that recycling is the right thing to do and the solution to our environmental problem but it is not true. Only 1/4 of our waste is recycled, more than half goes to landfills, 1/8 is incinerated and the rest, about ‪1/10‬ is composted. These are the 2017 Environmental Protection Agency's data for municipal solid waste management in the USA and this doesn't count littering.

To solve our pollution and environmental crisis, we have to take the problem to its source. The recycling or up-cycling of a product should be thought through during its design and before it goes on the market.
Until that happens, we, as consumers, are responsible for recycling right:
- Visit your local solid waste management website, learn about what can be and what cannot be recycled in your county
- Consider visiting your local recycling facilities, they often provide free classes 
- Research recycling centers in your town for material that don't go to the trash nor the recycling bin (batteries, corks, computer equipment, tires...)
- And don't bag your recyclables!

ROT THE REST (COMPOST)

Last but not least the last 5 Rs of Zero Waste is Rot! Understand compost.

40% of the food in the US is thrown away, ending up in landfills and producing methane. You might wonder why it doesn't decompose and return to the soil. It's because once trapped under tons of trash, organic material lacks oxygen to properly biodegrade.

Our food scraps represent about ⅓ of our waste. It's huge when we know that so many people are suffering from hunger (more than 37 millions in the USA) and we think about how much land, water, energy and time is required to grow food. 
But food waste doesn't have to go to the landfill, it can become a nutritious soil for our garden (or our local farmer's) if we compost it.

There are many compost options available:
- Worm bin: small container full of worms that process food waste through their organisms, if you see what I mean :)
- Bokashi: Japanese term for "fermented organic matter," a specialized system in which waste, including meat and dairy, breaks down without oxygen to produce a compost “tea” and a small amount of organic waste to be buried. 
- Compost pile: easiest of all if you have an outdoor space
- Tumbler: same as a compost pile except the compost is inside a bin suspended off the ground.
- Trench method: if you have a yard, dig a 12 inches deep trench or hole, put your compost and bury it with the soil you dug out of the trench or hole. That's it.

If you don't feel like starting your own compost, your city might offer that service or you can use the app @ShareWaste to find someone who will put your food scrap to good use.

Here in Charlotte, Crown Town Compost will gladly provide you with a bucket to fill up with fruits and vegetables scraps, corn cob, banana peel, grass clippings, used paper napkins, towels, tissues, plates, egg shells, nuts and grains, tea bags/leaves, coffee grinds...They can come to you or you can come drop off your bucket @southendmarket on Saturday mornings!

Note that composting is great but reducing food waste by planning ahead is even more important.

Living a less wasteful lifestyle is a journey: don't try to apply the 5 Rs all at the same time, start with something small that you can achieve and add on to it progressively. Producing zero waste is quite impossible in the world we live in but being conscious of the consequences of our consumption choices is a huge step into the right direction.