GOING GREEN
AS MORE PEOPLE SEEK TO EMBRACE SUSTAINABLE LIVING , REFILL SHOPS AND ECO-FRIENDLY PACKAGING SHOWROOMS ARE POPPING UP IN ORANGE COUNTY .
BY SHARON STELLO
T hea Pauley has practiced zero-waste living for at least a decade . She composts food scraps , wears mostly secondhand clothing , only buys items with minimal packaging , if any — looking for materials that can be composted — and uses refillable bottles for shampoo , dish soap and other household products . The only waste coming into her home is junk mail and gifts from other people .
“ For my home to become a zero-waste home , it took about four years — just one thing at a time ,” Pauley says . “… Now it ’ s pretty on point .”
Pauley also helps others adopt this sustainable lifestyle . She owns Eco Now , a regional chain of refill stores with locations Anaheim , Garden Grove , The LAB Anti-Mall in Costa Mesa and Laguna Beach . Eco Now offers an entry point to making your home more environmentally friendly : Among a vast array of products , jugs of soap , laundry detergent and the like can be pumped into reusable containers while chewable toothpaste tablets allow customers to forego the hard-to-recycle tubes , and canisters of basics like baking soda and borax can be scooped into a jar in the amount desired .
The Ritual Refill , owned by locals Shannon Hall and Danielle Holland , opened in north Laguna in early 2022 with similar products . “ We are both passionate about the importance of respecting the earth and keeping it clean for future generations ,” Holland says . “ Our goal is to encourage others to begin or continue their journey of low-waste living .”
This eco-friendly effort seemed a perfect fit for Laguna , a city that has banned eateries from using disposable plastic cutlery and polystyrene