If you want to reduce the amount of plastic and waste in your life, I encourage you to stop by Right On! Refillery in downtown Los Altos.
I'm so happy that this store opened here. The other zero waste stores that I know are in Berkeley or San Mateo or San Jose, but now there's one that's convenient for folks in the Mountain View / Palo Alto area.
A refillery means you can come and refill your household products by bringing your own container (or they sell reusable ones too). That means less waste every time you need a new bottle of soap!
They have all sorts of products in bulk that you can pump into a smaller bottle to take home. They have soap, laundry detergent (see below), dishwasher detergent, lotion, sunscreen, shampoo, etc..
You can also try a sample of some of these bulk liquids. They have this neat little cart where customers have donated empty jars and containers. The store sanitizes them and the containers can be used by other customers to take a small sample of something to try. (You can also donate your empty jars here if you don't need them!) We ended up getting a sample of their sunscreen to try (in a jar that was formerly for jam 😛).
Some items are in tablet form or individually packaged, but they're less toxic and more eco-friendly than what you would find from the big brands in the grocery store. For example, these Blueland tablets you can drop into water and make a foaming hand soap.
If you need a container, they also sell these new ones - either glass or stainless steel ones with pumps or spray bottle tops.
We ended up buying a bottle and filling it with this baby soap that's apparently pretty popular with customers. Sorry the photo is blurry! The soap has been working out well so far on our little ones.
They also have other products like unpaper towels (which are cloth "paper towels"), swedish dishcloths, bento boxes, and more.
We were intrigued by these soap bars for shampoo and picked up a couple to try.
There is a lot to see in this little store and everything is very carefully curated by the owner Emily Ting. She is really nice, also a mom, very knowledgeable about these products and how to incorporate them into your busy life. She is intentional about supporting and buying local brands as well so that there isn't a big carbon footprint from shipping the items to the store.
In this store, there's also bins for recycling hard-to-recycle items. Useful!
They also have this announcement about a partnership with the Luna Vez Farm for their CSA boxes. This farm supplies ingredients to high end restaurants in the area such as Maum in Palo Alto. I actually tried a small box and enjoyed the high quality and delicious produce - especially the carrots and rainbow chard.
To wrap up, I just wanted to say: With a little more upfront effort and being more conscious about what we purchase for use in our homes and on our bodies, we can make decisions that are better for our families and our environment in the long term.
I applaud the mission of this store and hope that many more of you go visit this store, so you can make tweaks for a better, healthier life!
300 State St
Los Altos, CA 94022