As a consumer I have been striving to avoid all the plastics I can. (We've taken that up a notch since the most recent oil debacle and now we're working on sourcing safe, stable, non-plastic containers for our bestselling LuSa Organics baby care line.) At home going (almost) plastic-free means buying in bulk, making (and growing) our own, and choosing second hand over new. For years we've been hauling our snacks around in glass jars. It works well but can get heavy on hikes and picnics and we've seen more than our share of breakage.
I recently stumbled upon Life Without Plastic and was thrilled with what they offer to keep your lunch plastic-free. They sent me a stainless steel tiffin to try and truly we find ourselves reaching for several times a week. It's portable, safe, lightweight, and sturdy. Along with this tiffin that my friend brought us as a gift from India, we rarely use anything else when we head to the park, the woods, or down the road.
Life Without Plastic has a generous giveaway for one lucky winner of a tiffin and a stainless food storage box. (Details are below the interview.) Read on for my interview with Jay, one of the two owners of Life Without Plastic.
Clean: What is Life Without Plastic all about?
LWP: Our mission involves offering the
best alternatives to plastic products for everyday life activities. We
focus on products that are hard-to-find, high quality, safe,
ethically-sourced, and of course with as little plastic as possible. We believe our world, our environment, is a sacred
place and space deserving the utmost respect, care and love. And we
think our products and the way we run our business reflect this
perspective.
Clean: What inspired you to go into this line of work?
LWP: (Co-owner/Parnter) Chantal and I have always been interested in helping and appreciating
the environment, and living in as healthy a way as possible. We have
never been fans of plastic – especially for food and drink. One thing
that has always disturbed us is to see how oily sauces, such as a
tomato sauce for pasta, would become impregnated in the plastic of
plastic food storage containers. If the plastic is absorbing the food,
it only makes sense that the food is absorbing the plastic.We began
doing research on the effects of chemicals and found the results disturbing – links to cancers and
developmental problems. We didn't want to be putting these chemicals in
our bodies.Back
in 2002, we were looking for a stainless steel water bottle and had
great difficulty finding one. We finally came upon the Klean Kanteen,
ordered one, tried it out and were impressed. With stainless bottles
now all over the place, we still feel the Klean Kanteen is the highest
quality bottle on the market, which is why we continue to carry it. So
that got us thinking – these bottles are hard to find, and we know
there are others out there looking for alternatives to plastic…Fast
forward one year to when our son was born… Chantal was
breast-feeding, but we sought glass baby bottles for storing breast
milk. Again, great difficulty finding glass baby bottles, which, of
course were the norm 20-30 years ago. We finally found that Evenflo,
based in Ohio, was having them made in Mexico. We contacted Evenflo,
and it was no problem to order them, but they only did wholesale and
the minimum order was 1000 bottles!At that point we decided to make
the leap and actually start the business that had been simmering in our
minds for several years by then. So we began with stainless steel
water bottles and glass baby bottles, and have never looked back while
expanding into food storage containers, dishes, water dispensers, toys,
bags… (gorgeous natural brushes from Germany and a stainless steel
ice cube tray are the latest products soon to be added to the line).
Most importantly, we both wanted to be doing something we believe in,
and to make a tangible difference for the environment and people's
health.
Clean: How do you believe you and your business are bringing good into the
world?
LWP: We know that what we are doing is making a difference both for the environment and for people's health. Our social justice and environmental mission revolves around decreasing global reliance on plastics, and can be summarized as follows: To offer the best alternatives to plastic products for everyday life, and to actively promote and educate about reduced reliance on plastic products for health, environment, and economic reasons.
As described on our website, this mission is based on a vision grounded in four guiding principles of health, environment, integrity, and community. (Visit LWP's website for details on how they work to support these principles.)
Clean: What else should we know?
LWP: Health, environmental, and ethical practices play into all we do. When sourcing any new product we have a list of environmental and labor-related considerations we go through in relation to the product and the supplier. And here at home we strive to accommodate the needs of our workers (especially in relation to family responsibilities). We have strong trust relationships with our employees and they are our friends, too. We gain support and nourishment from our community of Wakefield and do our best to give back in numerous ways. We have helped our municipality become fair-trade certified and are now working toward making it plastic-bag free.
Life Without Plastic is generously offering a giveaway to one lucky winner of the two items pictured below: a tiffin and a stainless steel food box. To be entered in the today's drawing simply leave a comment below with one way you are shifting your life to reduce plastic use (or one way you could!). I'll close comments on Monday morning, first thing. Good luck! Comments are closed.
To receive 10% off of any order at Life Without Plastic, use coupon code "lusalwp".
