Loke Poh Lin, founder of Bliss Zero Waste Store (Photo: Patrick Goh/The Edge)
Sometimes, a business card can say a lot about an establishment, and that of Loke Poh Lin speaks volumes about the core values of Bliss Zero Waste Store, which was founded in July last year. Stamped on the unprinted side of a tear-off Chinese lunar calendar, her card is given out only when absolutely necessary. Loke has a practical approach to being zero waste and is certainly not one to advocate buying specific items to further the cause — a step that can sometimes be counterproductive, if you think of it. But make no mistake, she is passionate about a gentler way of life and advocates taking small, sustainable steps to be aware of the amount of waste one produces from her cosy nook which she shares with Mingle Café in Jalan Sultan.
Although Loke has always been a “green” person, adopting a zero waste lifestyle was a turning point that led to the founding of Bliss. She attributes her decision to adopt a more sustainable way of life to Bea Johnson’s book Zero Waste Home: The Ultimate Guide to Simplifying Your Life by Reducing Your Waste. Soon after, she joined the Zero Waste Malaysia Facebook group where she was heartened to find many like-minded people. While the level of adoption may vary from one to another, the community provides ideas and support on the journey.
“It’s about the lifestyle and what it gives back to you. You know you are not harming the earth and that you are leaving a legacy. I have grandchildren, which is all the more reason I want to leave the world in a better position than when I came into it,” she says.
At Bliss, customers bring their own containers when buying cleaning and personal hygiene products stored in large jars, neatly arranged on shelves. If you do not have a container, bottles can be purchased. “They are not going to throw away something that cost them RM5!” says Loke. Even the furniture in the store, which includes a rare, vintage cashier’s stand, is pre-loved, and Loke jokes that while it may “look ramshackled, that’s part of its charm”.
Customers will also find handmade soaps and shampoo bars, furoshiki cloth, beeswax wraps, menstrual cups and organic cotton panty liners produced by other local brands. Every now and then, workshops are organised where participants can bring their favourite pair of jeans, bag, plush toy or anything at all that can be repaired with a thread and needle. The aim? To salvage and continue using items one already owns.
As Loke delved further into the zero waste world, she made some interesting findings. “Most of us are used to reduce, reuse and recycle, but what we haven’t been doing is refuse,” says Loke, who retired from her job at E&O Bhd three years ago. “We are also encouraged to shop differently. We go to wet markets, pasar malam and mom-and-pop shops more than we ever used to,” Loke says, referring to the requirement to use plastic bags to fill fruits and vegetables before their prices are tagged.
Perhaps the most disturbing of her findings was the revelation of the ugly truth behind recycling. “It takes energy to break them (recyclable items) down and a lot of times, it is just green washing and all about the feel-good factor [attached to recycling]. Often, the items are not really being recycled,” she says, emphasising the importance of refusing instead of recycling afterwards. In fact, Greenpeace Malaysia’s The Recycling Myth report released last November explored the worrying issue of Malaysia being a dumping site for plastic recycling from more than 19 countries.
One way to better manage waste is to simply create less of it, to begin with. The transition to a zero waste way of living may sound daunting, so Loke advises to start small.
Slowly but surely, Bliss and a host of other zero waste shops are changing the way we shop. “The only way something like this can work is if one [zero waste store] opens in every neighbourhood. I’d rather people go to a store close to them instead of taking a train all the way here and lugging home 2kg of products,” Loke enthuses. Her ultimate dream is for bulk stores such as hers to operate at the magnitude of a supermarket. In the meantime, she will continue to support fellow zero waste practitioners and advocate the way of life, one packaging-free product at a time.
This article first appeared on Feb 4, 2019 in The Edge Malaysia.
