Waste Not
Jeannie Richardson (L) and Amanda Welschbillig (R)
Photograph by Matthew Biggs Photography
Words by Hanna Whiteside
Infographic by Zoe Dzunko
Frustrated at the inaccessibility of package-free retail options for their grocery and pantry needs, Perth Hills locals Jeannie Richardson and Amanda Welschbillig took matters into their own hands and founded the Wasteless Pantry in 2015. The pair have never looked back.
“I grew up on a semi-commercial orchard – idyllic really – and I’ve always felt a connection to my natural environment. Climate change and anything ‘waste’ have bothered me ever since I can remember.”
Jeannie Richardson’s upbringing instilled an awareness of sustainability and waste issues from a young age, but it wasn’t until six years ago that she really dove headfirst into living a waste-free life.
“My great friend and co-founder, Amanda, and I discovered our similar interests and concerns. [We] began to dabble and experiment with different ways of doing things,” she begins. “We wanted to live a pretty standard lifestyle, albeit with a smaller environmental footprint and without the waste that comes with first world day-to-day living.”
Like many successful business ideas, the motivation to open Wasteless Pantry occurred via recognition of needs that weren’t being fulfilled within their own lives. As the friends’ enthusiasm for sustainable living continued to grow on a personal level, Amanda and Jeannie discovered there were no package-free shopping options in their area.
“The closest ‘bulk’ store was a forty-five minute drive and we could see the potential for an enterprise that took the ‘bulk store’ concept several steps further. Quite suddenly, setting up a place where people who felt like us seemed very possible. There were more people in our community than we had anticipated who were also looking for a place where they could do all of their pantry, cleaning, laundry and bathroom shopping plastic-free, by (re)filling their own containers.”
Thus, the Wasteless Pantry was born: a bulk grocery, personal hygiene and cleaning store providing re-usable containers and bags to support the zero-waste ideal.
“When we began developing our model in early 2014 the goal was to open the store that we wished we could shop in, and hopefully gain some kind of platform to encourage as many people as possible to begin transitioning to a lower-waste lifestyle.”
The first store opened in 2015 in Mundaring, Western Australia, and Jeannie describes how having a friend as her co-founder made the process a lot more manageable. “We were probably braver as a duo than we might have been individually, and we’ve been a great team. With complimentary attributes, together we cover a fairly well-rounded skill set.”
“We had such a steep learning curve ahead of us in the early stages that we really couldn’t look beyond those first simple goals for a while,” she continues. “As the store has progressed and evolved, we have become aware of so many opportunities to make the environmental impact of the company and its message so much greater. From continually working with suppliers to reduce the ‘backend’ packaging (we have closed the packaging loop for many of our products so that the container they arrive in is taken back by the supplier and re-used), to opening in more locations so that more consumers have a Wasteless Pantry not too far away.”
While the zero-waste ideal continues to gain momentum, spreading the message isn’t an easy feat. Jeannie finds the greatest challenge in living a low-waste life is the way that society is geared toward consumption and disposability, rather than promoting waste-conscious practice and awareness among consumers. “I don’t find the lifestyle itself challenging at all really. Rather, it’s an intuitive and rewarding way to be. But it often feels like we are swimming against the tide and that can be fatiguing.” It’s a shame, given the myriad positive benefits of the zero-waste lifestyle, which reach far beyond the impact on the environment.
Jeannie effuses the added positives of switching to wasteless: “Focus falls on filling life with experiences, rather than stuff, which is proven to be beneficial for wellbeing. It definitely has a positive effect on household budget! Only buying what you need, shopping second-hand, and switching from single-use to re-usable items all save money long-term.”
While the greater cultural landscape continues to drag its feet, it seems that locals in the Perth Hills community are embracing the new paradigm with the success of the Wasteless Pantry leading to its expansion into franchise territory. Stores now operate in Bassendean and Greenwood – along with the original Mundaring store – and the plan is to continue spreading the message far and wide.
“More locations mean scale, which increases our ability to influence the way things are done throughout the supply chain in regard to waste. We will continue to support and collaborate with the Plastic Free Foundation and champion Plastic Free July, and through our [social] media profiles encourage the everyday consumer to make steps, large or small, toward a lower-waste lifestyle.”
Their admirable vision has already seen significant recognition for the duo who were awarded the 2017 Waste Champion award at the Waste Authority Infinity Awards, and highly commended by the same organisation for Waste Team of the Year in 2018.