Last November, on Singles Day, China’s State Post Bureau expected to handle a reported 2.8 billion packages, roughly two packages per person on the country’s largest shopping holiday of the year.
Olivia O’Connor, an English teacher living in Nanjing, identified the overwhelming reality of waste and went out of her way to mitigate it. Joining the rest of the country in its online shopping culture, she visited Taobao and ordered a set of metal straws; a first step in the fight against the climate crisis.
“I started to realise how much plastic that actually is”, O’Connor said of the countless disposable straws used every day. She wanted to do her part to help.
A few days later, O’Connor received a package containing the items she had ordered to assist in her waste-free journey. It also contained, of course, an excessive amount of waste.
The straws arrived in a cardboard box. Inside the cardboard, O’Connor said, was, “a big blown-up bubble wrap thing”, with a plastic bag protecting a plastic container more than capable of transporting the items she had ordered on its own. After opening that container, O’Connor then found the five objects comprising her metal straw kit, each object individually wrapped in plastic.
O’Connor was dumbfounded. One package out of 2.8 billion, on just one of the many shopping holidays scattered across the Chinese calendar.
“The first thing I thought of”, O’Connor said, “was the irony that I had ordered this to save plastic. In a fast-pace consumer culture, how does one go about ditching plastic waste consumption?
One possible solution, named Lagom Planet, previously The Bulk House, hopes to offer relief for China’s eco-conscious citizens. The country’s first zero-waste social enterprise has used Taobao and Weidian to reach conscious consumers dedicated to combat plastic waste by, “making zero waste convenient for all”.
“We want to be a one-stop shop for everything that you need”, co-founder Joe Harvey told The Nanjinger. “We now almost got everything someone would need to live a normal lifestyle.”
Lagom Planet offers a variety of waste-free alternatives to household, personal care and everyday products, that are sustainable, reusable and biodegradable.
A Swedish word that doubles as a philosophy, Lagom roughly translates to, “Not too much, not too little, but just right.” Harvey described the word’s meaning as fundamental to his company’s ethos.
Lagom Planet is driven to not only limiting plastic waste, but to promoting an entire waste-free business, by promising waste-free packaging that includes biodegradable tape and recycled newspaper as padding.
This is a hopeful alternative and movement to the immense plastic waste many fall victim to on a daily basis in China, whether it’s via online shopping or purchasing a “bao zi” from a street vendor.
What initially began in 2016 as a personal challenge between Harvey and fellow co-founder, Carrie Yu, to limit their own waste to one jar per year has evolved into a business dedicated to providing China with items to aid a waste-free lifestyle. “When we started we didn’t really think of this going anywhere”, recalls Harvey.
The social climate surrounding a waste-free lifestyle, however, is still relatively new, Harvey said.
“I remember doing a search about zero waste in Chinese and English back when we started this and there was nothing coming up on WeChat moments or through WeChat accounts”, he recalled.
The lack of knowledge and awareness in plastic waste led Harvey and Yu to begin their journey by sharing moments on WeChat, writing blogs and self educating on zero waste. But it wasn’t until after hosting a workshop to teach composting for an audience of 30 people that they realised they were influencing their community; people were interested.
Through trial and error and lots of confusion sprouting from customers and viewers alike, Harvey and Yu have successfully grown their business with the same mission they started with; making zero waste convenient for all.
Now, with demographics displaying about 95 percent Chinese customer support, Lagom Planet is showing that zero-waste living and a plastic-waste-free lifestyle is brewing in a country that has long thrived on plastic waste.
“I felt a bit angry”, O’Connor said of her limited options toward sustainability. “I felt like these companies are taking advantage of people who are trying to buy environmentally friendly stuff, and actually we have no idea what the process involved in making and producing these environmentally friendly options is.”
Plastic waste, it is argued, interrupts nature’s process of revitalising itself. Adopting a zero-waste lifestyle is just one way of limiting our footprint on Earth.
When customers or friends who have doubts about zero waste question this concept, Harvey simply directs the conversation to the bigger picture. “This isn’t Carrie and I’s ‘concept’. This concept is nature. That’s all it really is.”
“Next time you need a toothbrush, buy a bamboo one”, Harvey suggested. “And that’s it. That’s all you have to do. And the great thing about that bamboo toothbrush is that you use it twice a day and now you’re being reminded about the environment twice a day by brushing your teeth.”
Whether a metal straw or a bamboo toothbrush, Harvey said, there are concrete measures his customers can take toward helping the planet.
“We can do anything”, he said, “but we can’t do everything”.
