💚 Introducing EnviroBren 💚

We thought you might like to get to know some of our amazing local suppliers, so we had a chat with Brenda who makes our vegan scoopable deodorant…

My name is Brenda Wilkinson (Bren for short) and I have been interested in sustainability (environmental and animals) my whole life. I’ve always loved nature and animals and HATED waste of any kind. When I was in my teens I used to make my own face masks with clays or strawberries and honey because I didn’t want to buy stuff that I didn’t have to. Up until my kids were teens I sewed all of their clothes (and mine) from scratch so that I wouldn’t contribute to slave labour. Their school got to use leftover fabric scraps for art/craft projects.

I started my EnviroBren business in 2014 to give people the choice to buy reusable, eco-aware products. My aim was to help my customers make good environmental choices with their purchases. I also started making my VDeo Vegan Deodorant fragrances in 2014. Unfortunately for the first few years my packaging supplier only had plastic lids which didn’t make me feel good. However, when I found out that I could source recyclable aluminium lids I quickly replaced the plastic lids for all subsequent orders. Reusable/recyclable glass jars and the aluminium lids made my VDeos more eco-aware. I love doing as much as I can to lessen my plastic footprint on the environment and the animals we share it with. Hence when Wasteless Pantry asked if I could make bulk amounts of my VDeo fragrances in larger sized glass jars, I jumped at the chance. I love the fact that Wasteless Pantry customers can bring their own containers and refill them with as much natural deodorant as they want when they want. In fact, I love the Wasteless Pantry ethos of sustainability and encouraging their customers to reuse their containers to refill whatever food, personal care, household cleaning products they want. I can’t begin to imagine how much single-use/plastic Wasteless Pantry and their customers have prevented from going into landfill, the ocean and waterways.

One waste-free tip?

Try to incorporate the 7 R’s into your life: Rethink, Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Repair, Rot

💚 Introducing Onya 💚⠀

We thought you might like to get to know some of our amazing local suppliers, so we had a chat with Hayley who creates some outstanding reusables that you always want to have onya…⠀

I don’t think anyone can really afford to not be interested in sustainability! It shouldn’t be something we actively have to think of, I feel it should really just be a way of life. It is about looking at all the 1 percenters and trying to choose the most ethical and sustainable option. I think my introduction to living lightly on the planet began with my parents who are amazing “makers”! Dad built most of our houses from new and salvaged items and mum made a lot of our clothes as well as baking our own bread.

Since 2004, Onya’s purpose is to help individuals reduce single-use plastic in their lives by providing them with long-lasting alternatives. Many of our products are made from waste such as rPET (recycled drink bottles) and using this material has allowed us to dramatically decrease our carbon footprint. As an example, it only takes 85 uses of our rPET shopping bags until they are carbon neutral. After that, they become carbon negative (actively reducing carbon with every use). As we make our bags to last many of our customers will use these bags for anywhere from 5-10 years or more, at which time we have a take-back program to recycle old Onya products to ensure none of our products ever need to go to landfill. In the past 5 years alone we have diverted 165 tonnes of single-use plastic drink bottles from landfill.

The Wasteless Pantry ethos is so in line with our own at Onya! We are both actively involved in helping people reduce waste in their lives and there is a beautiful synergy in Onya providing the vessel that customers can then fill at WP 😊

One waste-free tip? Don’t be overwhelmed when trying to reduce waste. Find your biggest area of waste and figure out ways you can reduce that waste. Once you have mastered that, look at other areas you can improve one at a time. Waste reduction is not about perfection, but more about action. Before you know it, reducing waste is just a way of life!