In honor of Earth Day, I want to share our story of Meditating Market.
A year ago, Danny and I began our journey to a more sustainable lifestyle. After staying home for weeks due to the pandemic, we realized how much trash we filled our bin with every week. We’re a family of four, and we put an overflowing trash can on the curb every week. Couple that with the release of the Netflix show Down To Earth and we determined it was time to make a change. Surely we could do better. Surely things could be different, and we could take responsibility in caring for the Earth we live on.
We were struck by a verse in Genesis that gives God’s first instruction to mankind: “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and care for it.”
We were a long way from caring for the planet the way God and Mother Nature need us to. We had been terrible stewards of this beautiful home and resource that sustains our life. We were ready to do better.
I shared my first blog on zero waste last summer. Central Arkansas is a difficult place to live an eco friendly, sustainable lifestyle. Everything is wrapped in plastic, our grocery store even ran out of paper bags at one point, recycling isn’t a thing on a community level, composting was a foreign concept, there wasn’t a refill station close to us, and finding reusable or compostable products that didn’t cost an arm and a leg just wasn’t happening for us.
We started by doing what we could. We started a compost pile in our yard. I began sorting and driving our recycling to the recycling center every week. We were surprised to learn our recycling wasn’t always making it to the center, but was being thrown in the landfill because we put it all in garbage bags. We replaced ziplocks by ordering reusable silicone bags and replaced plastic wrap by ordering silicone lids and beeswax wraps. To our dismay, every eco friendly product we ordered was wrapped and rewrapped in plastic. Every single piece of plastic ever created is still on the planet, either in landfills releasing greenhouse gases, or breaking down into microplastics in the ocean, eventually ending up back in the food we eat. For the sake of our health and the Earth’s health and longevity, we had to find a better way.
The store we wanted to shop at to support our sustainability efforts didn’t exist in our area. Ordering products was the only way to access what we were looking for. But in order to receive those products, dozens of single use plastic bubbles and bags were sent with everything. What if we had a local zero waste store? What if there was a refill station so we could bring and reuse our own containers by filling them with soaps and cleaning products? What if we found a community of planet-loving like minded people doing their best to make a difference by reducing how much trash is sent to the landfill each week?
January, 2021. We’d been talking about WHAT IF for months, and Danny and I finally looked at each other and said “What if it was us? What if we opened the store we’ve always wanted to shop at?”
And so, Meditating Market was born. We made a list of all the products we wanted to carry. I contacted manufacturers to ask if they’d offer plastic free shipping. Danny crunched the numbers, and we made an investment not just to change our future, but the future of our community and shared environment.
After a rapid four months of planning, learning, and execution, we’re so excited to share the grand opening for central Arkansas’ first zero waste marketplace is May 7-9! We have strategically chosen products to help our community’s household shift to sustainability. We are not only offering a place to shop, but a place to learn. When you browse Meditating Market, you’ll see information about how simple swaps in your home can drastically change the trajectory our planet is on. You’ll find a judgment free place to ask questions and make a budget friendly plan to begin your journey. One area of the store is dedicated to children, so parents can shop stress free.
Our family is down to filling one trash bag each week. Every piece of furniture in our store was found second hand and upcycled. All of our display signs were made out of the shipping boxes our products came in. We did our best to make every detail of our store represent the 6 R’s of zero waste: refuse, reduce, reuse, repurpose, rot, recycle.
We believe little changes will have a big impact. We believe that each person is capable of contributing to a brighter future for our children and the generations to come. We believe God has equipped each of us to be effective stewards of the land He created. We’re thrilled to have a place to invite our community to join us in creating change for our beautiful planet and all who live here.
“We don't need a handful of people doing zero waste perfectly. We need millions of people doing it imperfectly.”
