ProperGreen is open.
The short version: we've spent months finding small makers who do plastic-free properly, and we've put their work in one place so you don't have to order from eight different websites to fill a kitchen drawer.
What we actually sell
Around 240 products, from about a dozen independent makers. Some highlights:
For the kitchen. Coconut bowls carved from shells left over from the Vietnamese food industry — they'd otherwise be burned. Bamboo dish brushes with replaceable heads, so the handle lasts years rather than months. Reusable straws, travel cutlery, and end-grain chopping boards built from offcuts rescued from furniture workshops.
For the cleaning cupboard. This is where most household plastic hides, and it's the easiest place to start. Laundry and dishwasher detergent in dissolving sheets rather than plastic jugs — sixty loads that post through a letterbox. Compostable sponges. Biodegradable bin bags. Toilet cleaning bombs handmade in the UK.
For the bathroom. Bamboo toothbrushes, recyclable brush heads that fit Oral-B handles, toothpaste tablets that replace the tube entirely, and reusable safety razors that will outlast every disposable you've ever owned. Plus handmade soap bars, bath truffles and body butters from a small workshop making everything in batches.
Bags and accessories. Handbags, belts, wallets and jewellery made from punctured bicycle inner tubes, worn motorbike tyres and decommissioned military canvas. Every piece is cut and stitched by hand, which is why no two carry the same markings.
Food and drink. Raw British honey straight from a beekeeper's own hives. Wild herbs gathered in the Rhodope mountains of Bulgaria. Ayurvedic chai blends. Palm-oil-free chocolate hampers made in Britain.
What we won't pretend
Buying a bamboo toothbrush does not offset a flight. We're not going to tell you otherwise.
What a plastic-free swap does is remove one small, permanent stream of waste from your house. Do that across a few habits and it adds up. Do it across enough households and the demand signal reaches the people making the plastic in the first place.
We're also honest about the limits. Where something is handmade from reclaimed material, it varies — that's the nature of it. Where something's out of stock, it's usually because a workshop of four people hasn't finished the next batch. We'd rather say that than pretend we're bigger than we are.
Where things are made
Most of what we sell is made in Britain. Some isn't, and we'd sooner say so plainly. Our coconut and bamboo products come from workshops in Vietnam that have the skills and the raw material. Our herbal teas are gathered in Bulgaria. Our Ayurvedic range follows formulations from India.
What matters to us is that these are small operations using natural or reclaimed materials — not that everything carries a Union Jack.
Delivery
One flat rate per order, however much you buy: £4.99 standard, and free on everything over £50. Because each maker despatches their own products, an order spanning several of them may arrive in more than one parcel — but you're only ever charged once.
Come and have a look
The whole shop is at propergreen.com. If you want to know where something came from or how it's made, ask us — and if we can't answer, we'll go to the maker and find out.
Thanks for being here at the start.
