ecoLife is a plastic free store started in Hokkaido, Japan by Mami and Alex designed to make low waste/waste free or plastic free options accessible to anyone in Japan, regardless of where you live! We are a Japanese and Canadian couple who returned home to Japan after a brief 6 month visit to Alex's hometown Ottawa, Canada.
While there, we learned that single-use plastics will be banned in Canada starting in 2022. We saw how even older generations who were not previously aware or didn't grow up learning about environmental pollution have now started to become aware and want to do their part in reducing damage to the environment.
In stores fruits and vegetable produce don't have plastic wrapping, takeout containers are in paper boxes rather than plastic containers, we even found specialty stores where you can bring your own reusable containers and pay based on weight.
We saw that Alex's parents and entire family were using their own reusable bags, water bottles, coffee travel mugs every time they went to a store - they didn't feel like it was inconvenient, they felt it was a positive way to help contribute to reducing environmental pollution.
We returned to Japan in December where we started to live in a small village in Hokkaido. In big cities like Tokyo, it's sometimes accessible to find these specialty stores that let you refill your own containers or offer waste free options. However we found in small rural areas, it was nearly impossible to find plastic free or waste free options.
This is the reason we decided to start ecoLife, our own plastic free online store offering low waste and biodegradable/compostable solutions! We wanted to help make these waste free/plastic free options more accessible to anyone, regardless of where they live! We hope we can help you on your journey to reducing waste in your life and contributing to a cleaner planet earth!
Environmental pollution, destruction and climate change are all very real problems that threaten the way we live as well as all natural life on earth. It is easy to feel helpless, but we all can start our journey by trying to have control of our own lives first, and reducing the waste we cause in our own day to day lives!
If you are reading this now it means that you want to help reduce damage to the environment, or maybe you have already started on your journey to do so. We hope we can help you to do so, even if our actions and choices feel small, all of our actions are connected to the impacts we have on the future.
If we all try to make changes for a positive future, surely we can have a big impact together!
Mami & Alex
ecoLife Japan
