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Are Refillable Products The Future?

Are Refillable Products The Future?

Is the future refillable?

When we look at the history of plastics, it’s disheartening to realize that only 9% of all plastics ever created have been recycled. Another 12% has been incinerated; a whopping  79%, then, has accumulated in landfills and nature.

That’s right: your Bonnie Bell Lip Smacker tube circa 1995 is quite likely still somewhere on this planet.

Refillable products (like ice cream in stainless steel jars and shampoo bottles refilled in-store) aren’t new. But while most people say they want eco-friendly product options, their purchasing behaviors sing a different tune. Consumers tend to prioritize convenience over eco-friendliness, time and time again.

Today I speak with Izzy Zero Waste Beauty founder Shannon Goldberg about closed loop consumption. Is packaging the problem, or does the problem lie within our consumption?

Here’s a preview:

[6:00] 2 major barriers to mainstream refillables

[11:00] Do refillable products *actually* make a dent in our trash production? What about our oversized environmental woes?

[15:00] Refillable products and next-level greenwashing: Why we must expand our collective definition of waste to account for excess carbo emissions from sending back our products

[20:00] Are refillable options sanitary in a post-COVID world?

 

Resources mentioned:

 

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Refillable products (like ice cream in stainless steel jars and shampoo bottles refilled in-store) aren't new, but they're gaining traction as *the* solution to plastic waste. On this episode of the Sustainable Minimalists podcast: Is packaging the problem, or does the problem lie within our consumption?

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The Cost of Constant Connection

In this era of relentless connectivity, taking an exit ramp from our digital lives has never looked more inviting. In fact, emerging science is now confirming what many of us feel: Smartphones are draining our cognitive reserves, shattering our focus, and keeping us in a state of low-level chronic anxiety.

To see if there’s a better way, reporter Courtney Lindwall shelved her iPhone for a $45 Nokia flip phone. Courtney is on the show today to discuss  the "dumb phone" movement, the logistical friction of navigating an app-dependent world, and why research says our brains are so desperate for a break.

Here's a preview:

[7:00] Continuous partial attention, instinctual muscle memory, and other ways in which our smartphones are working against us

[9:00] Gray scale? screen limits? Here's why the tools and tricks don't work for the vast majority of us

[14:00] Thoughts on our emotional attachments to our phones—and the emotional experiences they provide

[22:00] The psychological benefits of embracing a bit more "friction"

[33:00] Our brains are malleable, and we get used to a new normal quite quickly. Lean into that!

Resources mentioned:

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Hello there, I’m Stephanie. I live a crazy, beautiful life as a full-time wife, blogger + mother to two spirited daughters. I’m on a mission to simplify eco-friendly living so as to greater enjoy life’s sweeter moments.

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