Here at Reimagine Co, we are starting up a “customer of the week” project to feature across all of our platforms! We hope to highlight our community members and their zero-waste stories. We believe that people learn best through example and by showcasing these stories, we hope to encourage more and more Londoners to join us in taking on an eco-friendly lifestyle!
Our first customer of the week feature is a frontline worker – Justin Sim is a paramedic with Middlesex County, doing all he can for those in need. Not only does Justin work hard in the medical field, but he leads an eco-conscious lifestyle for the betterment of our planet.
It all started last year when Justin began working alongside the Green Party and through connections, discovered Reimagine Co. He found the biggest waste producer in his lifestyle was through single-use plastics, especially the containers from bathroom products. Soap, shampoo, and conditioner bottles were overtaking his waste bins, until he found the refillery here at Reimagine Co to help him reduce the influx of containers.
Since the beginning of his journey, Justin has been reflecting on how many people live on this planet and just how disposable products are for convenience. Garbage day within his neighbourhood has been a major wake up call to take action – if one neighbourhood can create such a large amount of waste, what it is like on a national or global scale? The magnitude of this issue is incredibly large, but Justin believes the most important thing to do is to take action some way, somehow.
No matter how big or small lifestyle changes may be, they never come without obstacles. Justin found the most difficult part of his eco-conscious journey was figuring out how to start and how to do it perfectly. He originally thought that if he couldn’t do it 100% right from the beginning, he shouldn’t start at all. Despite these challenges, he was able to realize that being perfect was not the goal – making the effort to learn and grow is most important.
If you’re feeling the same way as Justin did, striving for perfection or not knowing where to start, his biggest piece of advice is to just try and do your best. Your journey isn’t supposed to be perfect, but as long as you reach out to others for help and utilize available resources, the challenges turn into victories. Each individual that takes on an eco-conscious lifestyle helps to create momentum within our community to achieve necessary goals for the greater good.
A big thank you to Justin for letting us share his eco-friendly story – we hope that this will inspire others to join in on a journey of their own!