The Waste Less Shop was founded by Stephanie Cochrane as a solution to the frustrations she felt with wasteful consumer products and her own struggles finding plastic-free laundry detergent, dish soap, etc. in her local grocery stores. She took to the internet and found a few great alternatives, but nothing in one place.

Stephanie was working as a dental hygienist when she started curating her favorite sustainable products into an online marketplace. She started the business from her garage and participated in local fairs and markets before she opened a bulk refill store just a few blocks from her apartment in Manhattan Beach in October 2019.  

The Waste Less Shop now wholesales products in over 250 stores across the country, serves communities through our refillery in Northern Nevada, has captured over 1.2 million lbs of CO2 from our atmosphere through our partnership with OneTreePlanted, and diverted hundreds of thousands pieces of plastic waste through sales of biodegradable and refillable goods.

We stand by the commitment to source plastic-free alternatives to daily household items that are also made without toxic or harmful ingredients and sourced primarily by small, female owned businesses.

In an effort to achieve carbon neutrality, we donate a portion from each purchase to OneTreePlanted, a non-profit working to reforest our planet. It's important for us to support regeneration and repair while we consume from the earth.

We hope that accessibility to sustainable goods continues to improve along with awareness about plastic pollution and climate change grows. We support policy efforts to hold big polluters accountable, reduce carbon emissions, and eliminate plastics from our daily lives.

My journey with The Waste Less Shop started when I was a young girl growing up on a farm in Winnemucca, Nevada. I spent my childhood playing in sagebrush and making friends with birds and rabbits. After high school I went to college for Dental Hygiene and spent my free time traveling the world to explore new cultures and learn more about the diversity of our planet.

It was during those travels where my childhood love of nature met the devastating reality that our world is facing through the climate and waste crisis. I saw trash piled on the hillsides of Mt. Everest and littering the rivers of the Philippines and encountered communities buried in plastic waste and toxic air.

I feel so blessed that I get to spend every day connecting to and learning from Mother Earth through this business. We have such a beautiful and resilient planet that gives us life and abundant beauty, filled with people who deserve peace and love. My work is to practice presence, learn from our anscestors, create connections, and to help our people + planet heal.