Let me paint you a picture of my bathroom and dressing cabinet before I turned the page to a plastic-free and zero waste life. I used to work in an FMCG(Fast-Moving Consumer Goods) company at this point of time and true to any marketer, I swore by the products and truly believed in their benefits and how they were beneficial for my skin care and fulfilling my personal care needs.

So, my bathroom had, at any given point in time, 2-3 types of shampoo bottles (one super expensive self-pampering kinds), 2 types of conditioners (one rinse-off, one hair mask), shower gel and loofah (the plastic one), hand wash, face wash. These were over and above the “unavoidable” toothpaste, toothbrush, bins with bin liners. Move over to the dressing cabinet and you would find a leave-on hair conditioner, 2-3 types of lotions, face cream, face serum, eye serum, sun block lotion, sun block creams, uncountable number of eye liners and kajals as I liked them in multiple colours, hand cream, foot cream and a few lip balms in jars and roll-on kind tubes. There was also hair serum, a couple of types of hair oil, make up remover oils and lotions and so on… you get the gist!

As I switched gears to a life out of a backpack and was training to become a diving instructor, I learned the impact of wearing sunblock which isn’t reef safe on the same reefs that I loved diving for every day. This led me to give up sun blocks altogether – a bit extreme as was proven by the multiple sun burns I got over the next month. But this also led me to rediscover the long forgotten benefits of coconut oil in reducing the pain of sun burns. I was immediately hooked and gradually all the lotions and face creams got replaced with coconut oil. Not only did I need to use much lesser oil than the lotion quantity, my skin felt better and it saved the poor diving instructor in me a lot of money too!

Being on a restricted budget and an even more restricted luggage space, the selection of toiletries reduced to one shower gel, one shampoo and one conditioner and my faithful coconut oil. Lip balms were forgotten as well and the kajals were brought down to the 2 I could carry with me.

The occupation of a diving instructor also meant I was diving during periods and that led me to switch to a menstrual cup. It also led me to wonder why I had not thought of switching years ago when I used to skip swimming classes just because of my periods! The cup came as a blessing as I donated all my tampons to a friend and this literally kicked off my Zero Waste Bathroom journey!

I came back to India and started The Happy Turtle. And also began the long journey of making my bathroom plastic-free.

Here are the swaps that I have done over the past 2 years:

• Plastic Toothbrush -> Bamboo toothbrush – EASY!
• Toothpaste -> Toothpowder in a glass jar(rock salt, turmeric, clove powder and neem leaves powder if you are okay with the bitterness): It took some time to get used to it but now it feels weird to brush with frothy toothpaste!
• Plastic Loofah -> Natural Dried Gourd Loofah – EASY!
• Shampoo Bottles -> Shampoo Bars: It took a couple of months of bad hair days until I found a shampoo bar that my hair was happy with. Your hair takes a while to get used to them – I’m not yet sure about the science here but I can vouch for the fact that if you stick on with the bars, your hair eventually forgives you and accepts the bars!
• Conditioner Bottle -> Conditioner Concentrate of almond oil and essential oils: I last bought conditioner almost a year ago but since I bought the big 1 litre bottle with the intent of buying minimal plastic, I am yet to get done with it. My next step for conditioners is sorted though with the essential oils and almond and coconut oil based conditioner concentrate from Earthy Sapo.
• Face Wash -> Natural Powder Face Wash in Glass Jar – One just needs to get used to no lather but that is easy, after having used similar products like the toothpowder
• Shower Gel -> Handmade Palm-oil free Soap: Although this costs me a lot more than buying regular soap, I prefer using the palm oil-free, plastic packaging-free soap. The money I save on lotions and face washes can be invested in the soaps, I figure.
• Lip Balms -> Natural Lip Balm or even ghee at times – EASY!

There are also a list of products that I simply removed from my bathroom. These include bins and bin liners, face creams (and all the eye creams etc), sun blocks, hair serums and leave on conditioners, disposable razors, make up remover lotions (I have some almond oil left and simply use that), wet wipes (rose water + reusable wipes), disposable cotton make up wipes (reusable wipes or an old towel).

I can proudly now say that this journey has been worth it as now I feel happy while walking into my bathroom, take lesser time to get ready as well in fact and the lack of clutter is amazing. What’s more is I am doing both the environment and my pocket, a favour!

I will lastly admit that the two bits of plastic still left in my bathroom are the handwash bottle and a reusable safety razor. I plan to get the maximum life out of the razor and the handwash bottle gets refilled with a diluted handwash liquid until I figure out a better alternative than simply using soap bars.

I have also finally finished the last lot of kajal and will now be making my kajal at home on some Sunday when I’m feeling exceptionally creative because let’s be honest, this zero waste thing is quite fun once you start on the journey. I look forward to more people joining the movement and getting rid of as much plastic as they can in their bathroom!

About the Author

Richa Malik is the Founder of The Happy Turtle. She worked in the corporate world for over 8 years (6+ years in the FMCG industry) post which she find her calling in Scuba Diving. A diving instructor and tec diver, she is passionate about minimising plastic consumption. She started her own zero waste journey 3 years ago and started the Happy Turtle with the same aim.