Courtesy of The Zeroish Company
The Zeroish Company
Trying to curb climate change through individual action can seem intimidating at best and overwhelming at worst. Does the fate of future generations really rely on me never eating a steak again? How much plastic waste am I producing by shopping at Trader Joe’s?
Kate Marnach, the owner and founder of The Zero(ish) Co., has a different, less nihilistic, more realistic approach to doing your part to combat climate change: a do-what-you-can approach.
Instead of subscribing to veganism and ridding meat and dairy products from your diet altogether, or going full-on zero-waste and producing a single mason jar’s worth of waste throughout the span of five years—yes, that’s a thing—Marnach wants you to try to go zero(ish) waste.
Marnach’s new store, which opened in late August a few blocks south of Lake Harriet next to Broder's Pasta Bar, provides the neighborhood with tools and products to put an end to plastic waste and other disposables that sit in a landfill. Unlike her previous store that she ran, Tare Market in Standish, Zero(ish) offers more beauty and home items while Tare offers more of a grocery selection.
To Marnach, zero(ish) waste means eliminating paper towels from her home, carrying around tote bags in lieu of plastic shopping bags, and removing non-essential plastic products and swapping them out with reusable items. It’s as easy as buying toothbrushes made from bamboo instead of plastic, using one or two reusable silicone bags instead of hundreds of disposable plastic sandwich bags, or taking your flour container to a bulk center where you can refill it waste-free.
There’s no guilt in zero(ish) waste. And as a mother of three kids, Marnach didn’t have time for zero waste perfection and the ensuing shame of purchasing plastic toys or other essentials—let’s be real, what child can be trusted with a glass sippy cup? “I'm sitting there going, I want to be involved in this. And I want to support this, but I cannot operate under the goal of having all my trash in one jar for a year, like, that's just not realistic with three kids,” Marnach explained.
Right after she had her third kid, Marnach and a few eco-friendly friends began their blog, Zero(ish), to give a voice to moms who want to lessen their waste. They’d partake in monthly challenges: one month throwing a waste-free birthday party for their kids; the next month only using tote and canvas bags as they grocery shopped; the following month trying out a compostable diaper service. “We found that as you do these things, you make them habits and you're more willing to add more things in,” she says of the monthly challenges. The blog was geared towards families, but helpful for anyone looking to reduce their carbon footprint.
At Zero(ish), customers bring their own jars and containers, weigh them, then refill the jars with body lotion, dish soap, and other household items. There’s bamboo brushes for dishes, a rainbow assortment of shampoo and conditioner bars, reusable cloth wipes, reusable menstrual pads, biodegradable bandages, and more.
“When you hear the word zero,” Marnach says, “you think of perfection—like, okay, I can't create any trash—and the whole idea behind the blog was just to do what you can.”
