Small Business Spotlight: Process

Making sustainable purchasing choices can be difficult for a consumer when items such as plastic bags and disposable containers are abundantly available for buyers.

For those looking to purchase products that are low-waste and have sustainability in mind, look no further than PROCESS at 836 Main St. in Stevens Point.

Rubina Martini, co-owner and founder of PROCESS, a low-waste shop in the square in downtown Stevens Point, said the store started out of her need to cut waste in her own life.

“I had overwhelming guilt every time I went to the store with the amount of plastic,” Martini said.

Martini started by selling products off of her front porch during the COVID-19 pandemic. She said that a lot of people in her community wished they had a refillery or low-waste shop.

Martini encouraged others to open a low-waste shop and offered her help. She never intended to be a co-owner of a store, but thought that a store like hers was a community need.

Accessibility was an important goal for Martini in creating PROCESS. Martini did not want her store to be overly expensive or fancy. She envisioned a store where people felt comfortable inside.

PROCESS offers a variety of low-waste products, including shampoo and conditioner in bar form that come in recyclable containers. Liquid soap containers are also able to be purchased and refilled at PROCESS.

PROCESS does encourage customers to bring their own containers.

PROCESS also has sustainable laundry options including cleaners with concentrates, powders, liquids, or laundry sheets. Martini said there are multiple options for products that allow a consumer to decide how eco-friendly they want to be, how much money to spend, and/or what works best for their needs, for instance how far they have to travel to do laundry.

For dish needs the store offers solid dish soap or liquid refill dish soap as well as a variety of eco-friendly dishwashing tools, some of which are even compostable.

Martini said that no matter where you are, PROCESS has items that meet your needs.

Martini suggests that students think about where they get everyday hygiene and cleaning items. She said an eco-friendly and inexpensive option for students is to get containers and refill them at PROCESS with the things they need such as cleaners or soaps. By doing it that way, only the product is bought and not the packaging.

To learn more about PROCESS, follow @lowwasteshop on Instagram.

Jack Orlando

Editor-in-Chief

[email protected]