The true beginnings of our business started when we left Minnesota for college in 2016. We actually never realized how "sustainable" Minneapolis was until we moved. On campus in our new city, we would see trash bins regularly overflow, garbage all over the city, and recycling bins go straight to landfill. This awoke a newfound interest in learning more about where our trash really goes and why we create so much in the first place. It was a true "someone should really do something about that" moment.

Not wanting to add to the piling up garbage we saw every day, we began using reusables wherever we could, until we learned our campus cafe had a policy they couldn't fill reusable coffee cups due to "sanitation purposes". Frustrated by this policy and the clear garbage problem, we began emailing the owner of the cafe demanding a change.

It was a several month long battle but we eventually won! This single occasion fueled our interest in taking matters into our own hands and demanding the change we wanted to see in our community. And inspired us to start our sustainable lifestyle page on Instagram, @sustainyrself, where we would share our journey in trying to minimize the trash we created every day.

We eventually began making our own products to avoid plastic packaging at the store, and would share our new recipes on our page. When our following began to grow, many began asking to buy our creations, and it all snowballed from there!

This business would have never existed if it weren't for sharing our "zero-waste" journey on Instagram, so we are incredibly thankful to our community who supported us along the way.