My entire life is wrapped in plastic. Food, soap, hair care, tooth care, “beauty products”, vitamins and medications, cleaning products–this is only the beginning of the beginning of the list. While it has bothered me for some time that so much of my life now comes in totally redundant plastic packaging (why is it that industrially-produced soap is either sold in a plastic-wrapped box, or is individually plastic-wrapped inside the box?), it wasn’t until this winter when I really started to wonder: “What did people do before there was plastic?”
As I began to sit up and take note of all the throw-away living I am doing, it seemed as though more and more news pieces were coming out of the woodwork about Canadian companies shipping garbage masked as recycling, or poor-quality single-use plastics overseas to be recycled that was never of good enough quality to be recycled, anyway. I don’t know about other Maritimers, but seeing the Scotsburn milk bag being held in the Malaysian minister’s hand as she talked about the garbage that had been shipped from Canada into her country made me embarrassed and heartbroken–our shopping habits are filling other people’s homes with garbage. I can no longer keep consuming things wrapped in plastic and think “oh, it’s okay because at least plastic is recyclable.” According to a National Geographic article from December 2018, only 9% of plastic ever made has been recycled, and a good chunk of it can never be. The statistics that say by 2050 there will be more plastic in the Earth’s oceans by weight than fish are staggering. There’s no question about it–we have to change the ways we live.
So, with that rant out of the way, let me tell you about my bathroom, and the beginning of my journey into the land of less-to-no single-use plastics. It just so happened that I ran out of toothpaste, conditioner, and facial moisturizer all on the same day at the end of May, and decided this was the perfect opportunity to begin the single-use plastic fast.
My first stop was to Fullton’s Pharmacy in Tatamagouche to see what was on offer for toothpaste, moisturizer, and hair care. Although the staff were helpful, the only thing on my list I could find there was a facial moisturizer by Green Beaver (pictured below) that I found in the organic section of the store. (One staff person did tell me that if I came across items I’d like ordered in to bring the product info in, and they’d see what they could do about stocking toothpaste and hair care stuff.)
The moisturizer is contained in a glass jar (without a plastic seal in between the lid and the jar), and was simply packaged in a cardboard container. While I didn’t think I needed moisturizer for extra dry skin, this seemed to be my best and only local option, so I went with it. And I’m glad I did! I have found the Green Beaver Extra Dry Face Cream to be moisturizing without being greasy or heavy, and it absorbs quickly into my skin. Some of its ingredients are also Canadian in origin, so even though this moisturizer doesn’t fit into the “locally made” category, it still feels like a win in my books.
After the trip into Fullton’s, I drove out to the Earltown General Store because they carry Bad Mouth Soap, a Halifax soap company that has a small line of shampoo bars. Unfortunately, the General Store didn’t carry any of the shampoo bars (they did, however, have locally made deodorant! It’s still packaged in a plastic container, but it’s cool to know that someone in Brule is making local health and beauty products). On another note, the Earltown General Store carries a number of Down East products for refill, including the hand and body wash soap. So, if you’re looking for liquid soap, take a drive out to Earltown and refill your old container!
In the end, I got both my toothpaste and my shampoo and conditioner from online stores. I bought my toothpaste (which isn’t a paste at all but are tiny little tabs) from a company called Bite in California, and my shampoo and conditioner bars from Lush.
Although the Bite tabs were not cheap, (plus shipping from California in American dollars) Bite had me at the packaging–a little glass jar of toothpaste tabs packaged completely in paper! The shipping was slower than I would have liked, (I actually had to buy a new tube of toothpaste to get me through the 10 days or so between ordering and receiving my Bite tabs) but I appreciated that the company gave me the option of choosing the slower, hopefully more carbon-friendly option than an expedited parcel.
The Tabs themselves took a bit of getting used to. The instructions are simple: 1) wet your toothbrush, 2) bite down on a tablet, 3) brush your teeth–but the texture and taste were kind of weird at first. It felt like brushing my teeth with a Tums antacid tablet–the tabs are kind of chalky, and they taste just like a Tums tablet. It takes awhile sometimes to chew the tablet up enough to get it to foam, and then boy, does it foam! However, within a few days of using the Bite tablets, I can say I prefer the tablets to my old toothpaste. I bought the mint activated charcoal bites because the company says the charcoal helps to remove stains, and after a few weeks, I think I have actually seen an improvement in my teeth’s appearance (I haven’t yet been to my dentist, so this could just be me buying into hype). And even though I still can’t quite get over the initial sense of brushing with a Tums tablet, I find my mouth doesn’t taste weird after I brush with a Bite tab the way it sometimes would when I’d eaten something like garlic immediately before brushing my teeth. I’ve also gotten used to the amount of foam, and even enjoy it! If I can’t find a Canadian alternative to Bite, I think I will be a regular customer.
The Lush bars, on the other hand, were less impressive. First of all, although the box arrived fairly quickly, (being shipped from Toronto) the bars of soap were sent in a box full of styrofoam pellets. Furthermore, both the Jungle conditioner bar and the Trichomania shampoo bar were packaged in plastic bags or plastic wrap (even though Trichomania was advertised as being shipped “naked”, meaning without excess packaging).
After reading a bunch of reviews on both bars, I decided to cut them up into smaller pieces to help extend their life (just like other bar soaps, you need to keep your shampoo and conditioner dry in between washes, otherwise, you just end up with a wasted, wet mush of soap). Minus the fact that it really smells like coconut, (the scent of which I am not a fan) Trichomania has been a dream to wash my hair with. It suds up easily and doesn’t take much to wash my medium-length hair. I’ve also found it doesn’t strip my hair like some other shampoo bars reportedly do.
The Jungle conditioner bar, on the other hand, is more difficult to work with. If you read through the reviews on the Lush website, most customers seem to complain that it’s hard to tell how much soap to put in your hair, if you can figure out how to get it on your hair in the first place. And they aren’t kidding–the conditioner bar doesn’t foam up like a shampoo bar, it just gets watery in your hand when you rub it, so it’s difficult to use. In the end, what I have found works for me is to get the chunk of the conditioner bar wet, run a bit of the watery conditioner through my hair, and then rub the bar down the ends of my hair and massage it in. Even though my hair doesn’t feel quit as smooth as it does after washing with bottled conditioner, I don’t have any problems with tangles or frizz, and I’ve found that when my hair dries, it still looks healthy and clean for 2 days before I need to wash it again (which is about what I would have with bottled shampoo and conditioner). Once again, I’m not a big fan of how perfumed Lush products are, so if I find a conditioner bar that is more locally made and keeps my hair as moisturized as the Jungle bar does, I would switch in a heartbeat.
The one thing that kind of breaks my heart in all of this is that none of these products are Maritime-local. For any of my Maritime readers out there, have you found plastic-free and locally made moisturizer, toothpaste, or shampoo and conditioner bars that you enjoy? If yes, I’d love to hear about them in the comments section!
North Country Fare 
Fpr the locally made deodrant, would you be able to contact the company to see if you could bring a container to them to refill when you are out of it? Of course this is if the company is not too far away from you, or if you could do it when you are in the area (and get like a 6 month supply).
I don’t know if I could do that or not. I was surprised when a local company that makes and sells shampoo told me Health Canada regulations do not allow them to refill self-care product bottles (like shampoo). Yesterday I bought roll on deodorant in a glass jar, so even though it’s not locally made, it was locally sold and plastic-free.