Our story

My mother is my biggest inspiration.  I want to tell her story one day when I become a successful entrepreneur.

Hi, my name is Em.  

As a young girl in the late 1980s, I lived in a refugee camp, where my weekends often meant sifting through landfills, searching for plastic bags I could sell to exchange for a piece of candy. My family and I managed with almost nothing: we used a single bar of soap for all our washing, and we reused everything until they fell apart.  Eventually, my family escaped and immigrated to the United States.

For years, I found myself instinctively living out those early lessons of resourcefulness, inspiring my friends and community to embrace sustainable habits—from composting and shopping locally to reducing, reusing, and buying for quality over quantity. Opening a zero-waste and refill shop was the natural next step on this journey. My mission is centered on plastic reduction, with zero waste as the ultimate goal.

My philosophy is to celebrate progress, not demand perfection. I find immense joy in cheering on friends each time they make a new sustainable swap. The inspiration is a two-way street: my mother taught me to reuse old t-shirts as rags, a friend showed me how to compost at the community garden, and the zero-waste community itself has shown me unwavering support by returning to refill their essentials regularly. This new venture is hard work, but knowing we are building a more sustainable community makes it exceptionally fulfilling.