Roots Refillery, Medicine Hat, AB

THIS IS OUR STORY, In 2018 the plastic problem was being broadcasted and talked about everywhere. Our plastic problem did not just become a problem, China, who had for years bought our problem had announced that they were no longer going to buy our plastic. We now had to sit on our plastic, we, especially in Alberta, had no practical way to deal with it.
Then the ZERO waste movement really started to flood my social media feed. People were living their life and were proud to show that all their garbage for an entire year fit in a mason jar. I looked at these people and in a fit of insanity decided that WE, my family of 5, 1 being a new baby, COULD DO THIS! I gathered my reusable bags, all the jars I could find and was bound and determined that we were going to fit our one-year worth of garbage into a mason jar too!
I think it took a week, probably less than a week that I found myself frustrated, angry, disappointed and even depressed. This way of life was not possible for our family, not even close.
I threw in the towel and gave myself some time to “heal”. Once I felt better, I looked around our house and decided that we may not be zero waste, however every little thing we COULD do would make an impact. I started with the small changes. We bought our clothes second hand (we had already been doing this for years anyway), our kids no longer received juice boxes for school lunch, they each received a reusable water bottle we had in the drawer. We started composting, stopped using saran wrap and zip lock bags and buying most food in bulk and at our local greenhouses.
WE BECAME MORE INTENTIONAL OF WHAT WE BROUGHT INTO OUR HOME – SIMPLE MATH LESS IN = LESS OUT.
These small changes were easy but I wanted to do more. Again, I found myself examining our day-to-day activities and what we used the most and where improvements could be made. Why could we not refill our laundry detergent? Why did I have to buy our dish soap in these huge bottles? How many shampo