Going Zero waste – The only choice left
Earth is our only home. There is no plan B. There is no backup planet.
Human beings were placed on this beautiful and bountiful earth to be the gardeners and look after mother earth. You don’t bite the hand that feeds you. And that is exactly what the human race has done. We are at a very critical juncture in the natural history of earth. There isn’t much choice left for us anymore. Either we correct our ways or we accept imminent doom that will lead to the extinction of our race slowly and painfully.
When we were growing up the world was a much different place, little technology, barely any gadgets and hardly any plastic. Our grandmother would tell me stories of how the oil sellers from far off lands would come and sell their produce in camel belly sacks. Everyone had their own grocery bag to go shopping, their own canisters for buying liquid essentials and no plastic. Women were beautiful and healthy. There didn’t exist all the fancy cosmetic brands that have now convinced us that it is impossible for us to exist without retinoids, or botox or chemicals. The truth is that with the advent of all the chemical build up, we are wrinkling before our time, greying before our time and leading stressful and pathetic lives caught in the traps we’ve built around ourselves. Women of our land could find all their essentials and path to beauty in the comfort of their kitchen. Chickpea flour, moong dal, curd, milk, honey, multani mitti, guggal, the list is endless. This simple regime had ensured longer lasting beauty with zero waste and zero damage to earth. We were surviving on the gifts of nature and nature would reward us by taking care of us and ensuring we looked and felt pure.
Once considered a great invention which was to change the lives of people on earth has now become one of the biggest threats our planet faces. Every time we buy that plastic bottle or any other plastic packaging, we’ve sentenced nature and many other life forms that are dependent on clean air and water to their death.
Plastic is choking our land, our rivers, our seas, our oceans and every life form that is dependent on earth for survival, including us. Microplastics have entered our groundwater and contaminate our food and water everyday eventually leading to diseases and poor health.
How are we at Himalayan Origins trying to go closer to the Zero in the Zero Waste?
We have started our journey towards finding and creating a zero waste lifestyle. We’ve gone back to the olden regimes and secrets to finding natural pathways to regaining our health and beauty the natural way with zero waste. This journey has been very tough as trying to do plastic free packaging means a lot of compromises, higher costs and a lot of wastage. The entire thought process and push behind starting Himalayan Origins was to ensure that we lead people back to nature and back to the simplicity of life’s natural remedies. In our products you will get the chance to revisit your childhood and memories that will trigger trips down memory lane.
Zero Waste Shampoos and Conditioners
Our shampoos and conditioners bars come in paper packaging and give people an alternative to switch from bottled shampoos. They are the simplest way for you to make a switch to a Zero Waste alternative. Some environment friendly shampoos still have sulphates, parabens and other harmful chemicals which still harm the environment. With only 7-9% of the plastic bottles being actually recycled, it is better to opt for an option that allows you to cut waste immediately versus living in a false hope that your recyclable bottle will be recycled. The carbon footprint that is also required to transport liquid bottles is much more than shampoo bars.
Zero Waste Bamboo Toothbrush
The handle of your plastic toothbrushes, and the bristles are both unsustainable. Again with most of us using toothbrushes on a daily basis and requiring replacement after 60-90 days, one single person can be consuming anywhere between 6-10 toothbrushes in a year. These toothbrushes are non bio degradable and difficult to recycle. It is estimated that 23 Billion plastic toothbrushes are thrown away every year.
Bamboo on the other hand, is a natural material which is easy to harvest in 3-5 years and has a much lower carbon footprint. It is naturally biodegradable and can decompose in 6 months time. Switching to Bamboo toothbrushes is a super easy switch. However switching to Bamboo toothbrushes doesn’t completely do away with the problem of its bristles being non environment friendly. However comparing a plastic and a bamboo toothbrush, definitely it is a no brainer to make that switch.
Zero Waste Wooden Soap Dish
When it comes to plastic free living, switching from a plastic is again a super easy fix. Majority of the soap dishes in the market are made of plastic or ceramic which is very easy to break or metal which rust very easily. If you are adopting an eco conciscuos style of living and using soaps instead of body washes in bottles, shampoo bars instead of liquid shampoos then you will need to also make the switch to a more sustainable alternative in your bathroom to keep these personal care products well. We have introduced Neem Wood based soap dishes in our Zero Waste accessories section, which are light in weight and sturdy enough to last long as they are made from high quality wood.
Plastic Free packaging
All our products are packaged in eco-friendly materials. For example, our shampoo and conditioner bars come packaged in paper. Our hair oils, hair butters, face cleansers come packaged in glass bottle with alumiinium caps versus plastic bottles and plastic caps. Our body soaps are also packaged in paper. When we pack our products for shipping to our customers we are not using any plastic bubble wrap, instead we are using regular newspaper to wrap our glass bottles. A lot of brands will claim themselves to be environment friendly and pack their products in glass bottles, but when it comes to shipping to end customers they land up using plastic bubble wraps, thereby defeating the whole purpose. We also use Kraft Paper Tubes to safeguard our glass bottles for shipping to our customers.
