Did you know… it is possible to reduce waste and eliminate plastic from your life?
Recently, a customer visited The Atrium and said it took her 4 years to eliminate plastic from her life, but it can be done! It’s likely one of the hardest thing human beings will ever do, but it is becoming more necessary every day. Mother Earth is counting on us.
From a retail perspective, eliminating plastic is a huge challenge. How we can take our products to cost effective and recyclable packaging is a dream we keep on the front burner as we navigate, always seeking to walk softly and leave a lighter footprint. Perhaps a day will come when that footprint is in complete harmony with our Mother.
What we are doing for now includes:
In the meantime, consumerism is a powerful engine. Its fuel is convenience, durability, and immediate cost effectiveness. The environment, wild life and human health is taking a hard hit from plastic consumption, waste and pollution. Transition to sustainable packaging is a big leap. To make packaging biodegradable and recyclable can be expensive but not always. Creating materials from natural sources that have the same quality as plastic are making progress, but producing it cost effectively is our constant challenge. Yet it motivates to always seek alternative s and improve our postage stamp impact on the environment.
Here at the farm in our greenhouses we have been using rice hull pots (attractive and bio-durable), peat pots, coconut coir pots, biodegradable pulp pots, curbside recyclable pots(made from recycled soda bottles) and reusing plastic pots whenever we can. Most of our plant tags are hand written on biodegradable wooden sticks. In our our farm produced value-added products which we showcase at our shops and on the the internet we are packaging in glass and metal tins. We still have a long way to go to become 100 % plastic free, as an organization we constantly seek and explore alternatives to plastic. It is balance of economic feasibility and access to alternative products. In our our busy and demanding farm life we carve out time to seek alternative solutions. It may seem tiresome at times but it is our challenge we embrace and ask all of you to embrace this challenge as well.
Here are some things we all can do at home, to roll back our plastic footprint:
- Forget the plastic storage containers. Replace them with glass. Mason jars and metal lids make excellent storage containers and are easy to throw in the dishwasher – ready for the next use!
- Most large grocery store retailers no longer give plastic bags. Replace them with your own natural fabric reusable bags, which can be found for purchase now at the Atrium. They are well made and will last for years. We have a number of varieties with dandelion, mushroom, poppy/iris, and farm motifs.
- Find a “refiller” store in your community and avoid unnecessary plastic packaging! Be surprised as to how much you can save when you refill your own dispensers with bath products, household cleaning products and laundry products. Some re-fillers have mobile services! Check your local listings. We will happily refill your bottles of lavender essential oil and hydrosols at the farm.
- Keep an eye out for products that are innovative, recyclable and not made of plastic, like dental floss made from natural material, toothpaste in recyclable aluminum tubes or tablets, or shampoo and conditioner cleansing/soap bars.
Every effort counts! Let us know what you do to step lightly on this planet!