This year Earth Day is focused on plastics, with the theme Planet vs. Plastics.

EARTHDAY.ORG is pushing its message of being “unwavering in our commitment to end plastics for the sake of human and planetary health, demanding a 60% reduction in the production of ALL plastics by 2040”.

If you fancy an intro to the issue, it provides a great Plastic Pollution Primer and Action Toolkitmore...

40% of plastic use is for plastic packaging, almost all of it single use. The main frameworks seeking to manage this waste come from WRAP and Ellen MacArthur Foundation that have commitments for users of plastic packaging to make 100% of the plastic compostable, reusable or recyclable by 2025. While the first two options (making packaging compostable or reusable) can be effective at reducing plastic waste, they are difficult to attain, so signatures to these commitments focus on making their packaging ‘recyclable’.

But making plastic packaging ‘recyclable’ is of barely any benefit (see earlier posts).more...

Here at Refill with LESS, we're all about making it easy to do your refills at home. We think it it’s the most efficient and effective way to prevent plastic waste but also save you money.

It turns out, a bunch of big brand companies think much the same. In their 2023 Global Commitments reports, various companies underlined that refilling at home is the best way.

L’Oreal said:  “refill at home is the most powerful system in term of environmental impact”.more...

Check out our sale on everything you need to get going with refills. It includes our Christmas Personal Care Bundle that includes stainless-steel, clear and amber glass bottles, stainless-steel push pumps and a range of personal care products to help you prevent plastic waste and smell wonderful. Perfect for that someone or family that has everything and wants to prevent plastic waste. And it's over 30% off too.more...

If you follow Bio-D, you may well see our stainless-steel bottles in its social media in coming weeks.

The idea of getting a stainless-steel laundry bottle for life is catching on. Use the bottle with Bio-D’s eco-friendly laundry detergent and it's a smart addition to any laundry room.

You save money on the product and prevent plastic waste. What's not to like?more...

Our new new stainless-steel laundry ‘Bottle for Life’ got some press coverage recently!

It was featured in a number of outlets, including the Yorkshire Times and Hull Is This.

All the pieces mention how refilling at home can help consumers prevent a substantial amount of plastic waste. A typical household purchases roughly one plastic laundry detergent bottles each month, creating 12 bottles of plastic waste each and every year. By using the stainless-steel ‘Bottle for Life’ and refilling from home, consumers can prevent this.more...

Our pilot has been going six months, the headline news is that our refill alternative to sachets is working.

We’ve been testing three ways to distribute bulk product and have faced teething problems with all three, but for the most part things have gone extraordinarily well. The solution works well in urban and rural villages and seems especially well suited to low-income household.

After receiving a small free sample, consumers pay the same unit price point as the market leading sachet (Clinic Plus), and bulk distributors purchase from us.more...

Refill With LESS is the latest addition to LESS's portfolio. It's an e-commerce site that offers customers the chance to buy stylish non-plastic bottles (glass, stainless-steel) to use time and time again, avoiding the need to keep buying single-use plastic bottles. It also sells the liquid to refill the bottles, from several brands across a range of personal and household care categories. If you're looking to move away from plastic, take a look how we can help you do that, and save you money at the same time.

It's available nationally, with free shipping for orders over £50.more...

Plastic use amongst CPG companies is rising, despite global commitments to plastic use objectives promoted by Ellen MacArthur Foundation and WRAP. This is because the objectives allow corporations to focus on using ‘recyclable’ plastic and downplay a key strategy that could quickly make a difference: reuse.

Business360 research shows how consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies are struggling to make progress reducing their reliance on plastic.more...

Today we heard that our refill-reuse pilot had been covered in a local paper,  Sakal, a leading Marathi language newspaper in the state of Maharashtra.

We are working on a translation, but meanwhile please enjoy it in its technicolour glory…more...

We're starting to get social!

 more...

Back in 2016 Ellen MacArthur Foundation and World Economic Forum worked to develop the New Plastic Economy^[1] as a framework to reduce plastic use. In 2018, and to great fanfare, Ellen MacArthur Foundation promoted the New Plastic Economy, with WRAP promoting its Plastic Pacts ‘enabled by the New Plastics Economy’^[2], and companies signed on.

Countries and companies that together represent over 20% of global plastic use committed to plastic use abatement measures with a 2025 deadline.

Signatories agreed to a range of targets:more...

These last few weeks we’ve finally launched our refill-reuse pilot at select kirana stores in and around Aurangabad.

We faced numerous uncertainties – would stores cooperate? Would women even want to try an unknown shampoo brand? If they tried, would they come back for refills, and do so reliably?

The only way to find out was to launch and see what happensmore...

Plastic waste is a problem here in the UK but it's a far bigger problem in many Asian countries where product is often sold in small plastic sachets that can't be recycled. Instead, these sachets commonly get washed away and escape to waterways and are a primary contributor to ocean microplastic. And along the way they clog drains and cause flooding, creating unsanitary conditions.

For about a year we've been working with a NGO and partner in India on a refill-reuse idea for low-income consumers. Much of the work requires developing a system to enable a reuse system, but a large component centres on consumer outreach and education.more...

In case you've ever wondered, clearing up old plastic waste from a riverbed is a really shit job.

Not that it isn't important. It's necessary, and about the only way to get heavily polluted rivers back to health. Never fully remediated and pristine, because this stuff endures decades and centuries, but functional and healthier.

But actually doing the work is no picnic. It’s slow, continually bending over or crouching down to pull plastic from the soil to put the waste into a large (plastic) sack. And it can smell really bad too.more...

Riyō is a range of sophisticated natural and organic beauty products.

Hand wash, hand moisturiser and body lotion come in beautiful amber glass bottles; shower products (body wash, shampoo and conditioner) in matte black stainless steel, all with elegant matte black stainless steel push pumps.

Specially developed here in the UK with botanically driven formulations, Riyō uses only the finest natural and organic ingredients, all without animal testing.more...

Colours and look & feel are critical for a brand, and we wanted to test ideas with our target market.

We prepared various options to convey different ideas and put them out to test. Here's a sample…more...

Votes are in and our first product will be called माझा शॅम्पू (My Shampoo). If only I could say it! I really need to brush up on my Marathi to get the pronunciation right…

Next we need a logo. We want something that conveys quality, assurance and trust. And we want the logo to be something the consumers will be proud to have permanently in their bathrooms.

We had three options, all very different…more...

We were well aware of the polluting effects of plastic sachets but through our consumer research we found another consequence, they clog drains. Not just in the home, where they can cause showers to block up but more broadly in the neighbourhood where they can cause drains to overflow and roads to flood. In monsoon season the problem can be particularly acute.

This Times of India article talks about how plastics generally causes city drains to clog, but pays no attention to the clogging effect of sachets in peoples’ homes.more...

We worked with a design and branding company in India to explore branding and naming strategies. It was a useful exercise

Nothing is yet settled, but we’re leaning towards a name that reflects the collaborative and communitarian approach we’ve taken.more...