HOUSE TIP SERIES #12 – The Re-filling of Cleaning Products in Auroville – A Success Story
The number of shops in Europe that sell in bulk is growing constantly. Aside from the well-established Italian Effecorta and Detersfuso, and Catalan Granel, in Vienna Lunzers Mass-Greisslerei is offering products in bulk to the Austrians, whereas in Germany a new shop called Unverpackt opened its doors a month ago in Kiel. In Berlin, Biosphäre is a social, non-profit organic shop, which started offering cleaning products without packaging in 2013.
And that was the year that MGEcoduties – Probiotics House and Pour Tous Distribution Centre (PTDC) – Auroville, started to offer all the Probiotics Natural Cleaning products without packing.
At the beginning was not easy, as many PTDC members wanted to take the “Bottle” and go away; even though, we have to deal with some bad humoured Aurovilians that did not want to do the re-filling. However, slowly slowly and slowly, it was picking it up, and members were accepting more and more and more till today, that is not way to think that cleaning products need to be packed.
Here are the numbers showing the trend of refilling Probiotics Cleaning products in PTDC;
In 2013, the number of bottles saved to go to the landfill were 3350.
In 2014, the number of bottles saved to go to the landfill were 4750.
In 2015, the number of bottles saved to go to the landfill were 7800.
In 2016, the number of bottles saved to go to the landfill were 9200.
In 2017, the number of bottles saved to go to the landfill were 10,020.
And we continuing accounting.
The bulk chain is proud of its contribution to reducing waste, as we have diverted 25,100 plastic bottles, or 1.5 tons of plastic from landfill.
“It’s essential to reduce waste at the production stage. If we want to convert our economy, create new areas of employment and contribute to protecting the environment, we have to reduce waste and industrial discards to a minimum and encourage people to choose refill products”.
Thank You Auroville Community,
Guidelma and Margarita
MGEcoduties – Probiotics House