greener goods brings eco-friendly products to Mahomet

We’re all in this together.

Tara Allen, owner of greener goods, located in Sangamon on Main was spreading that message before mid-March 2020.

Allen’s message goes beyond the COVID-19 pandemic, though. 

Her journey began when she opened a Poshmark closet about a year-and-a-half ago. 

“I just wanted something that was mine while I was home, raising my daughter,” Allen said. “And it was just something fun that I could do on the side. It ended up turning into a real passion, which I didn’t expect.”

Through her Poshmark business, Allen was able to buy and sell second hand “treasures” while also learning about the importance of reducing her footprint on the Earth.

“A segment of the poshmark community is really big into the secondhand clothing movement, which goes hand in hand with the zero waste movement,” Allen said.

While zero waste has proven to be a difficult goal, Allen has made small changes in her life, including opening greener goods, where anyone can find “super simple swaps.”

Greener goods opened on Leap Day 2020. Allen stocked her office space with bamboo dish brushes, lip balm in cardboard packaging, hand sanitizer in a metal container, grocery bags made of cornstarch, reusable straws and laundry strips. 

And while the packaging and its degradability is important, greener goods was also poised to provide refill stations on site so that people could bring in their plastic hand sanitizer bottles in for a refill, and not have to throw them away.

Allen, who said that she has plastic products in her home, said that when she can, she is making changes to how she purchases packaging.

“I will never buy a pop in a plastic bottle again ever,” she said. “I will always go for the cans. I’ll pay twice as much money because I know that I can put the cans in recycling and they’re infinitely recyclable; glass bottles infinitely recyclable; plastic, no. “You can only recycle plastic a handful of times.”

For Allen, new information is life-changing. 

“I think that knowledge is power,” Allen said. “When you know better you do better.”

Twelve years ago, Allen became a vegetarian. Learning about how animals are processed changed that.

“I read something, and then I knew too much and couldn’t unknow it,” she said. “I really like bacon but not so much anymore. It’s kind of the same thing with the zero waste.”

Allen was moved when she recently saw people dumping their clothes as resale establishments closed their doors. 

“They’re purging,” she said. “They have time to clean and they just want the stuff out of their house which I totally understand.

“So people have loaded it up and they’re like, ‘But it’s already in the car, we’ve got to get rid of it,’” Allen said. “So they are putting it there, but if it’s out in the elements, it’s going to be gross: it’s going to get wet and moldy, and then it’s going to end up in the garbage.”

For Allen, one man’s trash is another’s treasure.

“I love going through discarded clothing; it’s like a treasure hunt,” she said. 

Prior to understanding textiles, Allen thought that clothing was biodegradable, but learned that it can take hundreds of years to break down.

“That’s another thing people need to understand that when you throw something away It doesn’t just go away; it goes somewhere,” she said.

Recently, as people have had more time on their hands, spring cleaning has led to an abundance of items to be donated without anywhere to donate.

Allen rummages through the discarded clothing items, taking out pieces that could be used for resale through online vendors, like Poshmark. Being classified as a non-essential business, and losing potential income through her storefront at greener goods, Allen has been able to take things people don’t want anymore and float her business during this time.

“If I get 300 pieces accepted at $2 apiece, I’ll have enough to pay my rent,” Allen said. 

Leftover items are then passed on to It Takes a Village, an organization that helps people in need, and then the rest is taken to Salt & Light.

While Sangamon on Main remains closed during the Illinois stay-at-home order, Allen has the green light from the Champaign-Urbana Public Health District to deliver products order from her website.

“I want people to know that now more than ever, it is so important to shop local and buy local,” she said. “I’ve been doing it myself more. 

“We as business owners are going above and beyond to help you shop local and by local from the comfort and safety of your own home.”

Customers looking for an eco-friendly swap can go to the greener goods’ website to place an order. Upon checkout, the customer will be prompted to pay shipping, but after Allen makes the delivery, that amount will be refunded.  

Allen hopes that by taking the small steps to think about purchases and products, we will make a big impact together.

“There are lots of options out, there so many options,” she said. 

“My husband went vegan in the 90s; there was nothing for vegans in the 90’s,” she said. “Now it’s like there’s a whole section of the grocery store

“I think that if you give it five years, 10 years, 15 years, and I’m sure that California is in a totally different place than the Midwest is, but give it a little time and I think it will become the norm. “It will be looked at as, not heroic, but really admirable to pay a little more and buy a little better and really attend to what you are choosing to do with your money. Because whatever you’re choosing to buy is going to be what ends up on the shelves.”