This article first appeared in Castanet November 14, 2025
The holidays are just around the corner and in an effort to give less disposable stuff, I’ve created a zero-waste present list.
I’ve been doing this a long time and let’s just say it’s a zero-waste adventure. I’ve been bouncing ideas off Alex Fischer, who runs impactfull zero waste refillery and pantry in Penticton, and we’ve been trading tips on the good, the bad and the ugly.
First, the reusable bag. Alex and I agree the best reusable bag is the one you remember to bring with you. Hers is a much-mended canvas bag from the farmer’s market. Mine are a tiny stuff-sack bag from the Japanese dollar store and a big heavy duty canvas bag with a zipper. The latter is from Mamlyn and has survived three years of hard use and washes.
My family is never going to buy any food storage containers. We are up to our ears in re-washed Ziplock bags, take-out containers and re-purposed glass jars. Alex, keeping in mind chemicals released from misusing single-use plastics, loves Stasher Bags and Onyx stainless steel containers.
Makeup drives us to single-use products but in our house we love Greenzla washable makeup remover pads. A big fail was the LastSwab Makeup, meant to replace cotton swabs. My kiddo says it smears, rather than sharpens eye makeup. (Alex wasn’t a big fan of LastSwab either).
I don’t see the point in paying someone to transport water from place to place, so in our house we use powdered dishwasher soap, powdered laundry soap and bar soap for washing hands. A bonus is they are also cheaper per use and have less packaging.
But bar shampoo has been a case too far. J. R. Liggetts’ shampoo bar left my hair limp. Alex advises reading the ingredients (no chemistry degree necessary). If they include saponified oils, it's not shampoo, it's a body bar. For hair, she likes ‘be YOU’ from Bottle None.
She says the hardest thing to find has been good dish soap (for handwashing dishes) but after a lengthy search, she’s happy with one by Om Naturale or the Make Nice Company. Alex’s big fail is toothpaste tablets. In her brain chewing equals swallowing (she does better with toothpaste powder). I am drawn to handmade soap bars but I get frustrated that they sometimes dissolve into goo. Alex points out most soaps are sold immediately after production, cured for the minimum amount of time possible. Storing them for a few months gives them a chance to harden up.
Alex and I are both pro-cloth. We love cloth dinner napkins (growing up, each kid got a different napkin
ring) and cloth menstrual pads. Cloth handkerchiefs are easier on your nose and classy in a 1940’s Cary Grant kind of way. People ask me “are they sanitary?”. You may notice that as you walk through town during flu season, there are dropped tissues on the sidewalk, on the floor in the bank, at the elevator at work. There are never dropped handkerchiefs because they are valuable and the owner goes back to look for them. Better for the owner to pick it up, don’t you think?
Cloth menstrual pads are awesome. They are more comfortable, have less odor than disposable and save you money. However, don’t be seduced by cute prints! It matters what kind of cloth the pads are made from. The cute prints are cotton quilting fabric which is not soft and is not absorbent. (While cloth menstrual pads come with special washing instructions, eventually we just started tossing them with the regular wash, without any ill-effects.) Here are our recommendations:
I confess my kitchen is never going to be 100% paper towel free—the cat throws up, I need to pick up those tiny glass shards or grease must be contained. (Alex is with me on the grease). So keep our secret. We are low-paper, not zero paper.
Cleaners are my weakness. It’s the fragrance. The human sense of smell is incredibly powerful. Scents travel a hardwired path through our brains, manipulating us, motivating us and bringing up old memories. I know most cleaning products can be replaced by vinegar and water but in my head, clean bathrooms smell like lemon verbena (Mrs. Meyers) and clean floors smell like Pinesol. So here we have to distinguish between “fragrance/parfum” and “natural scents” (it’s annoying that there’s no scientific or legal definition of these words). Keep in mind that arsenic and cyanide are both “natural” and highly toxic, and some synthetic chemicals are harmless, so safe/dangerous doesn’t break down nicely into natural/synthetic. If you read labels (which requires a chemistry degree) you’ll notice that under ingredients it lists “fragrance/parfum”. What goes into “fragrance/parfum” is considered a trade secret and companies are not required to tell you what is in them. Hidden under “fragrance/parfum” can be phthalates (which can cause cancer, disrupt reproductive, neurological, and developmental systems) and VOCs (which can cause cancer, liver, kidneys, and central nervous system issues). We will define “natural scent” as a scent derived from plant-based materials such as flowers, fruits, and herbs, and is created by extracting natural aroma compounds through processes like distillation or pressing. Switching to a “natural scent” product generally means that a) all of the ingredients are disclosed and b) that you're not getting phthalates and VOCs. (Alex points out this isn’t perfect! Some people still have allergic reactions to essential oils.)
Alex is a minimalist who cleans with vinegar and water infused with lemon peels but she understands the “clean=scent” drive and offers her customers concentrated cleaners in a wide array of scents including rosemary mint, bergamot mint, lemongrass, lavender, grapefruit, orange or scent-free with the option of adding your favourite essential oil. She points out that one disadvantage of “natural scents” is that they don’t last as long. If your shirts still smell like Tide a week later, and your floors like Pinesol two days after you mopped, that's due to a potent chemical stew under the cover of “fragrence/parfum”.
We both have cats and cats put hair everywhere. We’ve been through plenty of tape-based lint rollers but have now switched to one with a wooden handle attached to a triangle with little brass teeth. (It doesn’t seem to have a name). It works great on all of our upholstery and some of our blankets, though clothes can be hit or miss.
Here’s our fully-tested, zero-waste holiday shopping list (prices are approximate, before taxes and shipping):
Articles and cartoons on Teaspoon Energy by Kristy Dyer are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. You may reprint this as-is for free, contact me to request changes. Images belong to the original artists.
First, the reusable bag. Alex and I agree the best reusable bag is the one you remember to bring with you. Hers is a much-mended canvas bag from the farmer’s market. Mine are a tiny stuff-sack bag from the Japanese dollar store and a big heavy duty canvas bag with a zipper. The latter is from Mamlyn and has survived three years of hard use and washes.
My family is never going to buy any food storage containers. We are up to our ears in re-washed Ziplock bags, take-out containers and re-purposed glass jars. Alex, keeping in mind chemicals released from misusing single-use plastics, loves Stasher Bags and Onyx stainless steel containers.
Makeup drives us to single-use products but in our house we love Greenzla washable makeup remover pads. A big fail was the LastSwab Makeup, meant to replace cotton swabs. My kiddo says it smears, rather than sharpens eye makeup. (Alex wasn’t a big fan of LastSwab either).
I don’t see the point in paying someone to transport water from place to place, so in our house we use powdered dishwasher soap, powdered laundry soap and bar soap for washing hands. A bonus is they are also cheaper per use and have less packaging.
But bar shampoo has been a case too far. J. R. Liggetts’ shampoo bar left my hair limp. Alex advises reading the ingredients (no chemistry degree necessary). If they include saponified oils, it's not shampoo, it's a body bar. For hair, she likes ‘be YOU’ from Bottle None.
She says the hardest thing to find has been good dish soap (for handwashing dishes) but after a lengthy search, she’s happy with one by Om Naturale or the Make Nice Company. Alex’s big fail is toothpaste tablets. In her brain chewing equals swallowing (she does better with toothpaste powder). I am drawn to handmade soap bars but I get frustrated that they sometimes dissolve into goo. Alex points out most soaps are sold immediately after production, cured for the minimum amount of time possible. Storing them for a few months gives them a chance to harden up.
Alex and I are both pro-cloth. We love cloth dinner napkins (growing up, each kid got a different napkin
ring) and cloth menstrual pads. Cloth handkerchiefs are easier on your nose and classy in a 1940’s Cary Grant kind of way. People ask me “are they sanitary?”. You may notice that as you walk through town during flu season, there are dropped tissues on the sidewalk, on the floor in the bank, at the elevator at work. There are never dropped handkerchiefs because they are valuable and the owner goes back to look for them. Better for the owner to pick it up, don’t you think?
Cloth menstrual pads are awesome. They are more comfortable, have less odor than disposable and save you money. However, don’t be seduced by cute prints! It matters what kind of cloth the pads are made from. The cute prints are cotton quilting fabric which is not soft and is not absorbent. (While cloth menstrual pads come with special washing instructions, eventually we just started tossing them with the regular wash, without any ill-effects.) Here are our recommendations:
I confess my kitchen is never going to be 100% paper towel free—the cat throws up, I need to pick up those tiny glass shards or grease must be contained. (Alex is with me on the grease). So keep our secret. We are low-paper, not zero paper.
Cleaners are my weakness. It’s the fragrance. The human sense of smell is incredibly powerful. Scents travel a hardwired path through our brains, manipulating us, motivating us and bringing up old memories. I know most cleaning products can be replaced by vinegar and water but in my head, clean bathrooms smell like lemon verbena (Mrs. Meyers) and clean floors smell like Pinesol. So here we have to distinguish between “fragrance/parfum” and “natural scents” (it’s annoying that there’s no scientific or legal definition of these words). Keep in mind that arsenic and cyanide are both “natural” and highly toxic, and some synthetic chemicals are harmless, so safe/dangerous doesn’t break down nicely into natural/synthetic. If you read labels (which requires a chemistry degree) you’ll notice that under ingredients it lists “fragrance/parfum”. What goes into “fragrance/parfum” is considered a trade secret and companies are not required to tell you what is in them. Hidden under “fragrance/parfum” can be phthalates (which can cause cancer, disrupt reproductive, neurological, and developmental systems) and VOCs (which can cause cancer, liver, kidneys, and central nervous system issues). We will define “natural scent” as a scent derived from plant-based materials such as flowers, fruits, and herbs, and is created by extracting natural aroma compounds through processes like distillation or pressing. Switching to a “natural scent” product generally means that a) all of the ingredients are disclosed and b) that you're not getting phthalates and VOCs. (Alex points out this isn’t perfect! Some people still have allergic reactions to essential oils.)
Alex is a minimalist who cleans with vinegar and water infused with lemon peels but she understands the “clean=scent” drive and offers her customers concentrated cleaners in a wide array of scents including rosemary mint, bergamot mint, lemongrass, lavender, grapefruit, orange or scent-free with the option of adding your favourite essential oil. She points out that one disadvantage of “natural scents” is that they don’t last as long. If your shirts still smell like Tide a week later, and your floors like Pinesol two days after you mopped, that's due to a potent chemical stew under the cover of “fragrence/parfum”.
We both have cats and cats put hair everywhere. We’ve been through plenty of tape-based lint rollers but have now switched to one with a wooden handle attached to a triangle with little brass teeth. (It doesn’t seem to have a name). It works great on all of our upholstery and some of our blankets, though clothes can be hit or miss.
Here’s our fully-tested, zero-waste holiday shopping list (prices are approximate, before taxes and shipping):
Articles and cartoons on Teaspoon Energy by Kristy Dyer are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. You may reprint this as-is for free, contact me to request changes. Images belong to the original artists.
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