This week, we sat down with Homethings to discuss everything eco-friendly cleaning. Discussing their origins, passions & where they want the brand to go in the future…
My name is Loïs Mills (but everyone calls me Lo) and I am the Brand + Community Manager here at eco cleaning start-up, Homethings. I look after everything from our social media content all the way up to our rolling out our packaging designs and nearly all the bits in between. My background experience is at packaging design agencies and running online communities on the side.
Homethings started when Matt and Tim (co-founders) realised how bonkers the number of single-use plastic products they had in their home was – it really was one of those ‘in the shower’ thoughts. Homethings was born out of the idea that it’s time to rethink what’s underneath our kitchen sinks and really shake things up in the cleaning industry. For as long as we can remember, we’ve consumer homecare products in the same way (buy > use > chuck) and it’s time something was done about it.
Single-use plastic is bonkers. Using something once and then throwing it in the recycling bit, assuming it’s going to a better place, is just simply not true. We’ve all seen Blue Planet, so I don’t need to wax lyrical about the environmental problem but what does need to be spoken about is the ways in which brands are providing solutions. Did you know that most cleaning products contain up to 90% water, and only 10% the stuff that actually cleans? When you think about all that water being shipped around it just doesn’t make sense when you can just add tap at home. For us, it’s a multi-angle approach in order to do something that makes sense. No more single-use bottles. No more shipping water (and thus lowering the carbon footprint) and no need for toxic chemicals in our ingredients lists either. We truly believe that cleaning your home doesn’t have to involve trashing the planet.
Why is the work you’re doing so important?
The work we are doing at Homethings is just the starting point – the real hero is the person deciding to make the switch. Our role is to offer a sustainable alternative that we believe is accessible to as many people as
possible. Our mission is to pioneer the circular economy in homecare by removing single-use plastics and massively reducing the carbon footprint of the products we use. We also align everything we do with the UN Sustainable Development Goals and believe that this acts as a solid foundation for all the work we do. In particular, the goals we focus on are: Sustainable Production and Consumption, Clean Water and Life Below Water (part of SDG 12).
How customers can make a difference by switching to Homethings products
First of all, anyone switching to the Homethings cleaner cleaning club is a champion. Wherever possible, we source as close to home as we can, meaning that by supporting Homethings you’re also supporting other small local businesses too. In addition to joining a bunch of other refilla’s in saving over 200,000 single-use plastic bottles from landfill so far, switching to Homethings also means saving heaps of CO2 emissions too as each Homethings refill tab has over 90% lower carbon emissions than a standard single-use plastic cleaning bottle. That’s pretty cool.
We want to create more great products that clean really well and that offer a sustainable switch that makes sense. We’re currently B Corp Pending, so it would be amazing to become an official B Corp in the not-so-distant future and continue to get involved with all the great work that they do.
