The name – inspired by the saying “from one ripple comes a mighty wave” – draws you in like a lasso. What is Ripple? The answer, it turns out, is a zero-waste shop in Cardiff’s Roath district, and about time too.
As a capital city, Cardiff has been rather behind with popular trends that have been cemented in cities elsewhere, including Next Bikes and eco-friendly metal water bottles. There’s even a sprinkling of zero-waste in Crickhowell. As a nation, Wales has become more conscientious in its collective daily life in the last few years – indeed, in 2017 the country was rated the second-best household waste recycler in the world.
If you want to look out for the planet and give a little back, Ripple, a non-profit venture founded by Sophie Rae, is a great place to start. Ripple’s modus operandi is BYOB – Bring Your Own Bottle/Bag. Amongst the nuts, pulses, seeds, pastas, flours etc. you can bulk buy in sustainable bags (if you have no containers), you have eco-friendly soaps, shampoos, conditioners, washing up liquid and cleaning products. All of this is refillable and affordable, with everything priced on how heavy the contents are alone. This means you only pay for the weight of your product and not any of the packaging – for example, 48p for 100g of couscous.
Beyond that, Ripple is an advocate of locally-sourced products, stocking Cardiff’s Big Moose Coffee and myriad Welsh food produce, but also fashion items such as jewellery and ethically-created clothing including dungarees, t-shirts, jackets and babywear. When you consider that the multi-billion dollar fashion industry has a sizeable impact on the environment, with microfibres from polyester clothing entering into our water sources and 20% of industrial-level water pollution worldwide arising from the fashion industry, it’s these kind of small but considered changes that help kickstart the changes from day one, and that’s the ethos of the entire venture. After all, from one ripple, right?
words Eve Rowlands
Ripple, Albany Rd, Cardiff. Info: www.rippleliving.co.uk
