Hi, we’re Lily and Nat. We’re a husband-and-wife team, parents, and normal people trying to make healthier choices for ourselves and our family.
At the beginning of last year, we saw a headline1 that stopped us cold.
Researchers2 had found plastic accumulating in human brains. One estimate put the amount at around 7 grams — roughly the weight of a plastic spoon.
A plastic spoon. In your brain. Braaaaaiiiiinnnnnsss. Now, for some reason, we’re picturing zombies with spoons, eating our gray matter. With a nice Chianti.
Apocalyptic imagery aside, that was enough to make us look around and ask a pretty obvious question:
What are microplastics and HOW did they get into our brains. How much plastic is actually around us, or IN us.
Turns out, quite a lot.
The cutting board? Plastic.
Food containers? Plastic.
The kettle? Yep.
The clothes we were wearing? Quite possibly. The car. The furniture. The toothbrush. All of it.
And then there’s that seemingly innocent paper coffee cup — which, as it turns out, has a plastic lining.
At some point, you find yourself looking suspiciously at completely ordinary objects and thinking: Are you plastic too? Are you out to get me?
Naturally, we did what anyone would do. We Googled. And then we Googled some more.
We read articles, dug into research, watched documentaries, and learned words we hadn’t spent much time thinking about before: microplastics, nanoplastics, PFAS, phthalates, BPA... and on and on.
Along the way, we watched The Plastic Detox3, which prompted us to test our own exposure through Million Marker. Results pending…
The more we learned, the more we found ourselves asking two questions:
Is this actually bad for us?
And:
Even if it is, what on earth are we supposed to do about it?
Because plastic is everywhere.
And, to be fair, plastic is incredibly useful. We’re under no illusion that we’re going to eliminate it entirely from our lives.
But once you start seeing it, it’s very easy to become overwhelmed.
Suddenly everything needs replacing. Your kitchen needs rebuilding. Your closet is suspect. You’re side-eyeing your toothbrush.
That’s not particularly helpful. And it’s definitely not sustainable.
So we stopped trying to solve everything.
Instead, we started with one small change at a time.
Pick something we use regularly. Do the homework. Understand what the concern actually is. Find a better alternative if there is one. Try it. Live with it.
Then move on to the next thing.
It’s perfectly imperfect.
And that’s the point.
We also came to believe that one of the most meaningful ways we can influence change is surprisingly simple: how we spend our money.
Big systems don’t necessarily change because of one strongly worded email. That’s fun too and can work. But every time we choose one product over another, we’re casting a tiny vote.
And if enough of us start voting for products made differently, companies notice.
That’s LowTox Living in a nutshell.
We’re not scientists. We’re not gurus. And we certainly don’t have all the answers.
We’re learning as we go.
We’re investigating the things we use every day, trying alternatives ourselves, and sharing what we find.
Sometimes we’ll get it right.
Sometimes we’ll come back a few months later and say, Yeah, no... turns out that wasn’t so great.
And if you know something we don’t — if we’ve missed something, misunderstood something, or there’s a better option we should know about — tell us.
That’s part of the idea.
Our promise to you
We won’t tell you everything is toxic.
We won’t use fear to influence you.
We’ll do the homework. We’ll try things ourselves. We’ll be honest about what we know, what we don’t know, and the trade-offs involved.
And we’ll share what we think is actually worth changing.
Then you decide.
Perfectly imperfect.
One small change at a time.
— Nat & Lily