Welcome to the subscribers-only page for the Fifth Edition of the GREENish Lifestyle Box.
In this section we’ll provide a little more detail on each of the products that you received in your box, as well as our own hot takes.
We’d love to hear what you think, too. Share your joy for the GREENish Lifestyle with us on Instagram at @greenishcanada, or reach out to us via email at adam@greenishcanada.com and sean@greenishcanada.com.
We appreciate your support. Thanks so much for supporting small business - not just ours, but the companies that we partnered with to source all of these amazing products.
The Products:
We’ve sourced what we think is an awesome cross-section of products for you that each bring something unique in terms of helping to reduce waste. Each company we’ve partnered with has an ethos that meshes well with ours, and we’ve run into some amazing humans along the way who are trying to do good things.
Paperless Towels from All Things Preserved
Recently we got a chance to meet Susan at All Things Preserved and we’re very impressed with what she’s doing. These paperless towels are handmade from 100% locally-sourced, upcycled fabric. They can be used to replace just about any single-use item you have in your house, and you can use them again and again.
Susan was also kind enough to make us some custom labels and provide us with a discount that you can use for anything on her site until February 20. Make sure you take a look at allthingspreserved.ca.
HOT TAKE: Sure, you could just find a bunch of fabric scraps from old clothes, sheets, whatever, and use them the same way you’re using these Paperless Towels. But what fun would that be? We think half the fun of reusing is getting the look and feel factor right, and what Susan has done here is just what we’re looking for in upcycled products.
Toothpaste Tablets from Change Toothpaste
Toothpaste tubes are the definition of wasteful. Everyone uses them, and everyone throws them out. The good news? You don’t have to stop brushing your teeth altogether to reduce your dental hygiene waste.
The guys at Change Toothpaste in Edmonton were amazing to deal with, and we love the product. It’s the best toothpaste tablet we’ve tried - the mouthfeel is just like regular toothpaste and they really work. Down the road we may look at sourcing the tablets in bulk, too, which would be even better, packaging-wise.
HOT TAKE: We always question things a little bit when we hear that packaging is “compostable.” And while what Change has done here is commendable, manufacturing their pouches under the EN 13432 standard (the European standard for compostable plastics, way better than standard tubes), we’re going to put it to the test. Stay tuned for that!
Natural Loofah Sponges from Zero Waste MVMT
These sponges are awesome. They’re all-natural, plant-based, and 100% biodegradable. Zac and Janelle were super friendly and great to work with, and they were thrilled to be part of the GREENish Lifestyle Box.
We’re excited to keep working with Canadian companies - Zero Waste MVMT is based in Winnipeg and they’re doing some cool stuff, including planting trees with every purchase. Check them out at zerowastemvmt.com!
HOT TAKE: This is another one that we’re going to do some composting experiments on. We have no doubts at all that something plant-based like this will compost, we just want to have some fun with it.
All Natural Mini Deodorant (Sample Size) from Plantish
Of course we were going to find a way to work with a company named Plantish. It just goes so gosh darned well with Greenish. And when we tried this deodorant, we thought you might like it too. We stuck to a small size so you can give it a try and see what you think.
Lydia at Plantish makes the deodorant from scratch in Vancouver, and it is terrific. We keep saying it over and over about all of our new partners, but they were great to work with as well. It’s so exciting to be working in this field with like-minded folks who are doing cool things for ol’ planet earth.
HOT TAKE: Adam smells sometimes. You probably already knew that, but the moral of the story here is that he smelled significantly less bad when using this deodorant.
Ashwagandha & Chill Superfood Tea Blend from Lake & Oak Tea Co.
Made in Toronto, the teas from Lake & Oak are pretty amazing. This one is our favourite so far, so we wanted you to try it as well. Meredith was terrific to work with, and we’re excited to carry more varieties of their teas as we go forward.
We love that Lake & Oak donate a percentage of their profits back to mental health initiatives. These are difficult times for lots of people, and seeing companies that want to support individuals, awareness and reducing the stigma behind mental health and addiction.
HOT TAKE: we wanted to include something a little different in this box. Made in Canada was important to us, and of course, waste reduction. However, this isn’t strictly speaking a product designed to reduce waste, but consuming tea from companies like Lake and Oak does help reduce waste across the board, as they have sustainable practices in place from production to packaging.
3-Pack Reusable Standup Bags from (re)zip.
You will never use a single-use kitchen bag again. These reusable bags are so easy to use, and so easy to keep clean, that eventually we think they’re going to take over your whole kitchen. Each one of them can take the place of about 300 single-use bags, or maybe even more if you take care of them.
While (re)zip isn’t a Canadian company, they’re still good people and we’re thrilled to be working with them. While supporting Canadian is our top priority, we’re also totally game to support awesome people in other places if they’re doing great things.
HOT TAKE: (re)zip has a vendor take-back program, which we think is super cool. They’ve partnered with TerraCycle to find new uses for the materials in these bags at the end of the product’s life. We know that not every product in the world can be fully biodegradable or compostable, so programs like this are a great way to reduce waste.
A couple notes on packaging:
Our subscriber base has grown to the point where sourcing enough appropriately sized boxes became increasingly difficult (which is a good problem to have, thank you), so we’re now using recyclable boxes, unbranded so that you can reuse them as well if you choose. We’ll also take them back from you if that’s logistically doable and use them for a future delivery. As for the rest of it, we’ve made our own packing strips in a manual shredder by reusing paper and paper bags that we’ve collected, mostly from shipments we’ve received. We’ve also used a form of paper tape which is a bit better than plastic, and our labels are made from recycled paper. So hey, we’re not perfect, but we’re making an effort to get better every time.