We are developing a framework for Canadians to make easy zero-waste decisions. Let's start with shaving.
When you pick your method of shaving, there are several criteria to consider; feel, ease, cost, waste, and taste… okay maybe not taste, but definitely the other criteria. Shaving has become a bathroom grooming habit over the past centuries that shapes modern humans (both males & females). This regular act of care that only requires a sharp safety razor blade and a human hand, has now evolved into a mundane task executed by disposable razor blades, and an unconscious hand.
WASTE LESS FRAMEWORK
INITIAL QUESTIONS:
Before you pick subscriptions - shave club or zero waste safety razor blades, take a moment and consider all these criteria holistically; feel, ease, cost, and waste. How does shaving feel? How does disposing of your razor feel? What does shaving cost you now, what does it cost our planet tomorrow, what is the true cost of shaving? Where do your shaving products go? How much waste do razors create? What alternatives to modern plastic razors exist? How long do you keep a razor, and razor blades for? How long does our planet keep the waste? There are an endless number of questions to ask, and answer… that’s why Life UNpacked has built a bundle of shaving products that meets all these criteria, and provides Canadians an easy zero-waste shaving option. Let’s start breaking down the decision; subscription safety razor blades or shave club?
FEEL:
The feeling of shaving is ultimately one of satisfaction. Whether you are shaving your beard, your legs, your chest, your armpits, or your other crevasses…. When you’re done you inspect the hair you’ve sculpted and feel satisfied. Satisfied you did not cut yourself, satisfied there is no razor burn, satisfied with how if felt to shave, and how it feels to be shaven. However, when we break down this feeling that encompasses the time during and after shaving, we have to rate a few key elements by asking some questions:
Was the process of shaving smooth, did the razor cut the tiny pieces of hair down to nothing like a hot knife in butter, or did it take several strokes? Did the fancy highly designed disposable shaving cream help, or did it just get in the way? How did the shaving cream or natural shave bar work? Did it leave the skin clean and replenished with natural ingredients, or do you need to take another step “after-shaving” and use another disposable product, like after shave.
See this whole process of shaving has been designed to make us feel more confident, more clean, and more proper… but over the years we’ve continued shaving without much after-thought… especially about what happens with the razors blades we’ve bought. That feeling of disposing of razor blades and shaving cream cans has never caught our attention, and sparked any significant feeling. That feel needs to be caught, yes captured in the experience of shaving. From start to finish, we should acknowledge how shaving feels, from buying to using, and disposing. When we connect the whole experience holistically, subscribing to safety razors blades feels way better than joining a shave club.
EASE:
The ease of shaving is vital. Shaving is already a hard task, so hard that some wild bush people choose not to shave anytime… anywhere… literally. To make shaving easy companies have designed many razors; electric razors, plastic razors, interchangeable razors, bamboo razors, metal razors, single blade razors… heck companies even designed lasers, as if razors weren’t enough! All this was done to make shaving easy for you, but what about big blue (our planet). All these shaving razors do the same thing, the razors cut your hair. When you compare how easy shaving with an electric razor with specially designed razor blades is versus shaving with a bamboo razor with zero waste safety razor blades, they are both extremely easy. Seriously shaving is easy and breezy when you think about it for more than a second. Sure it’s harder than walking, but it’s easier than fixing a broken planet. Consider how easy switching to zero-waste safety razor blades is for you, compared to how hard it is for our planet to deal with plastic razor waste. Your options are; easy and eco-friendly... or easy and egregious. Just pick your shaving style… ruin our planet or protect our planet. All the options are easy to get; buy plastic razors at any big brand store, subscribe to waste through any shave club, or subscribe to zero waste safety razor blades that leave no trace.
COST:
Cost is simple, right? It is the price paid for a product. So what costs more; a zero waste safety razor subscriptions or joining a shave club? Let’s look at the cost paid by you, our planet, and our people (yes, Canadians). You pay for the razor blades, our planet pays for the harm done to extract and process the material (plastic and metal), and our people pay to manage the waste we create… when you evaluate the cost of a product you MUST include all the costs. Now you know how to holistically calculate the cost of shaving. It starts when you buy a razor and ends when your razor has disintegrated and a new razor is created. Acknowledging the true cost of any products you buy is essential to making the changes we all collectively want to see. Together, making the simple switch to shaving with zero waste razors will cause more and more people to realize the true cost of their shaving routines and their other routines.
WASTE:
The waste created by shaving is heartbreaking, let’s start there. When you evaluated the decision of subscribing to zero waste safety razors, or joining a shave club, or buying traditional plastic razors from a store the option is obvious. Any given piece of plastic takes about 400 years to degrade. If half of Canadians shave regularly, that’s 18 million people. Assuming 6 razors blades a year (not including handles), that’s 108 millions pieces of plastic a year in Canada alone… just for razors. If you buy traditional plastic interchangeable razors, then you contribute to that waste. If you subscribe to zero-waste safety razor blades, you create no waste. Now you know the rough impact (and honestly you’re lucky to know, billions of people aren’t even aware of this simple problem and solution). We strongly recommend you choose responsibly.
CONCLUSION:
The criteria are simple; feel, ease, cost, and waste. The scope of these criteria is not simple. This is where the challenge of choosing between traditional razors, shave clubs, and a subscription to zero waste safety razors is. When picking to buy products, like razors we need to collectively understand the full feeling, ease, cost and waste associated with our decision (from earth to earth, the full cycle). Life UNpacked offers the simplest cheapest safety razor blade subscription products for Canadians to keep shaving while saving our planet from useless plastic waste.
Choose Responsibly. Choose Zero Waste.
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