A Sustainable Home on Broadway Street has vegan soaps, conditioners, shave bars, facial mists, body butters, aprons, reusable mop pads, hand brushes, toilet scrubs and bamboo toilet paper.
All of it is sustainable, said co-owner Ronda McNulty, because their goal is zero-waste.
“We have some bath and body that’s from here in Michigan: soaps, bath salts, deodorant, and then some hydrosols and things of that nature,” McNulty said during an interview with Fox 17 on Wednesday. “Doggie wash, baby wash, foaming hand wash that’s all made in Allegan.”
McNulty said most of the products at A Sustainable Home, or ASH, are locally-made or made in the U.S. They specifically sell products made at people’s homes, farms or on their properties.
They opened on Monday May 15, becoming the first zero-waste store in the area.
The South Haven Area Chamber of Commerce did their ribbon-cutting and McNulty said the community embraced them.
“We had a huge turnout. We had probably about 12 of our board and ambassadors who attended as well,” said Brandy Key, the chamber’s community liaison. “I think a few people left buying things.”
McNulty, who co-owns ASH with Pat Nolan, said their main message to customers is that zero-waste living is achievable. Zero-waste means that nothing goes in the trash. It’s a lifestyle centered on waste prevention instead of waste management.
“We want them to know that it is easy and convenient to go low-to-zero waste. Most people think that it’s difficult but it’s not,” McNulty said. “We encourage you to bring your own container to refill your daily things that you use or we do have containers here that you can get for free, cleaned and sterilized.”
McNulty added that the use of plastic is also a major problem, considering it pollutes waterways and are difficult to compost. So there’s none of it in the store.
For McNulty, she’s been living this way for years.
“I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease 18 years ago,” she said. “It took me about three years of seeing doctors and stuff to finally realize that that wasn’t helping me and to realize what was causing the auto-immune disease. Since I went completely natural [and] organic — started with my food, then my environment — and as I cleaned all the toxins and chemicals out of my environment I got better.”
Once ASH gets settled in, she said they’d like to host events and classes and one day open an adjacent grocery store. However, for now, she’s set on helping customers understand that zero-waste living is within reach.
“It’s one step at a time and hopefully it’s great move forward for our future generations down the road,” McNulty said. “We don’t want to leave the earth for them to have to clean up, is how I feel about it. I have grandchildren.”
