Zero waste is the idea of using and producing the smallest amount of waste possible. This way nothing you use ends up in a landfill or worse, the ocean. This means reusing what you have. Finished some pasta sauce? Awesome now you have a new container to take to a zero waste market to fill up with package free produce, like coffee or granola or any other food items you may need. Depending on where you live you might have a store nearby that does this. It’s becoming more popular. Think of it like going to Starbucks with your own tumbler for your drink. By doing this you’re not using any of their cups or lids and not producing any waste. Or it’s like taking a reusable bag with you when you go shopping so you’re not leaving with plastic or paper bags.
Mika posted she went to one of the Wasteupso events and I was curious. She said she’d gotten a stainless steel straw via Wasteupso, so after a couple months of following them on Instagram trying to decide which sort of event I wanted to go to (they have one practically every weekend) the perfect event popped up. A tea party. I had to go. I booked my tickets and headed to the tea shop.
Since then I’ve attended several of their events. Not every weekend. There’s no way I can do that. But often enough that I keep putting this post off to add more to it.
They usually, wherever they pop up, have a couple different vendors. Lots of vegan friendly things (vegan means no animal or animal byproducts. Similar to vegetarian but instead vegans don’t consume eggs, dairy products, and depending on the vegan, honey.) These tend to be available like the above pastries, various nut butters, and coffee. The coffee and granola is sold by weight. You either bring your own container or buy one of their recycled jars.
Pivot bakery can also usually be found with it’s vegan cookies, pound cakes and other various sweets.
They also sell household goods. Organic loofahs/sponges made from plants, metal containers, clothes, and of course metal straws with cleaning brushes. Which was my goal. So I bought some for my parents and myself.
They also now sell these cute little handmade carriers for your straw or cutlery.
One of the fun things from the first pop up shop event that I went to was that they had a drawing. (Which doesn’t seem to be a common thing that they do) The drawing was for prizes from their various vendors in attendance. The actual card included a flower and number.
And they announced the winners later in the day. And I won!
I won another straw. (And some all natural loofahs and a tea strainer)
I asked about the loofahs recently trying to figure out whether it was for shower use or for dishes use and I was told it can be used for either. It’s a little scratchy so I think the other one’s going to be used for my dishes. They also sell another kind of loofah which might after getting wet be softer. These technically did get softer and expanded a bit, but I didn’t like how hard it felt on my skin.
Their other events have included (beyond their weekly pop up shop), recycling umbrellas into bags, a vegan cooking class and a lesson in bojagi. I attended the bojagi class. (보자기) Bojagi was taught by byyul_official and was how to make and wrap things using traditional Korean cloths. These square cloths were used historically by middle class scholars on their long walk to their exams to carry all their things. They were also used as wrapping for food and gifts. We learned a lot of different styles but probably the most difficult and most pretty is this one below.
The things they do are constantly changing along with the things they sell. Like as you can see the items have expanded a bit from the first time I went in this picture below.
The crew that runs the Waste Up So and the creator (and all the fun vendors and class teachers) are really friendly. It’s always fun to go and see what they have and what they’ve added to try and make things easier and require a little less plastic and waste in one’s daily life.
You can find their events on facebook here.
Great post 🙂
Thank you!