UNtowels and Sustainable Avowals

Eugene residents looking for sustainable holiday gift options need not go further than Fifth Street Public Market. Marley’s Monsters, which sits along Market Alley, offers an array of locally produced, eco-friendly household products.

Owner Sarah Dooley started the business almost a decade ago, when she realized she could sew her own reusable cloth baby wipes for her first child, Marley. “I saw how much money and waste I was saving from just one little swap,” Dooley says in a video on the store’s website. And the shop grew from there.

Now, Marley’s Monsters offers an array of sustainable items, available online or in person — from its signature UNpaper towels to reusable sponges, from reusable makeup wipes to biodegradable toothbrushes. The company handmakes its products in Eugene.

“Everybody has the mission of being sustainable,” says Whitney Wilson, the company’s retail manager, “down to ingredients of products.” Most of Marley’s Monsters products use minimal packaging — and the company avoids plastic packaging altogether.

Wilson has been with Marley’s Monsters since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. She says she appreciates the company’s vision, the communal atmosphere along Fifth Street Market and that employees are treated as “a person first.”

“I think it’s really special,” she says.

Marley’s Monsters products can be found at its Eco-Shop, 550 Pearl Street, suite #160, or online at MarleysMonsters.com. It has wholesale deals with various other online and storefront vendors.

A Note From the Publisher

Dear Readers,

The last two years have been some of the hardest in Eugene Weekly’s 43 years. There were moments when keeping the paper alive felt uncertain. And yet, here we are — still publishing, still investigating, still showing up every week.

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Listening to readers has always been at the heart of Eugene Weekly. This year, that meant launching our popular weekly Activist Alert column, after many of you told us there was no single, reliable place to find information about rallies, meetings and ways to get involved. You asked. We responded.

We’ve also continued to deepen the coverage that sets Eugene Weekly apart, including our in-depth reporting on local real estate development through Bricks & Mortar — digging into what’s being built, who’s behind it and how those decisions shape our community.

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