March 01, 2018

How we're trying to be a zero waste and plastic free business!

Through Fillgood I encourage people to reduce waste and disposable plastics, but as a business I also try to set an example. As you’ll see, we are close to zero waste but being plastic-free is a bit more complex.

Follow me in this behind the scene and feel free to comment if you have ideas about how we could improve!

Home delivery Products are delivered at home in a black reusable bag with a tag. We ask our customers to keep it and return it at the next delivery. This way, both the bag and the tag are reused which avoids lots of disposable packaging.
	Shipping It's official, we now ship products outside of the Bay Area (no refills though, they are too heavy, it wouldn't make sense). Orders are shipped in reused cardboard boxes with reused paper packaging materials. There are so many out there, it’s crazy! Between friends and customers, we have a regular supply which allows us once again to reuse and save materials every time. The only thing we had to buy new is kraft paper tape!
From our suppliers We ask them to ship products without plastic and we are so grateful that they happily do it. Some even reuse packaging materials like we do. There’s one exception though: all our dispensers pumps and jars are wrapped in plastic. They are manufactured in large quantities so right now we have no control over this unfortunately. The only thing we can do today is to collect all these soft plastics and bring them to El Cerrito recycling center where they go right into the flexible plastics bin.
	Liquid products in bulk They come in 1 gal and 5 gal containers. We are committed to find a new life for all these containers and it works great so far. For example, 5 gal buckets are donated to collect shower cold water, rain water, grow potatoes, as recycling and compost bins, as emergency supplies storages, pet food storage (tare it and refill it at your local pet store), regular storage boxes and so much more! We’d prefer to return them to our suppliers for a refill but right now it’s not possible, so reusing them is our best shot. And yes unfortunately these containers are in plastic. But I’m confident we’ll find a way better solution and work something out with our suppliers!
Our most plastic-free and zero waste partnership We've built our ideal scenario with @taptapsf! We deliver the products in Tap Tap glass containers, take them back from our customers when empty and return them to the brand. Being both in the Bay Area is key to make this work without extra shipping costs and materials.
	Tags Our rounds tags are printed locally, by Greenerprinter, on a kraft board paper (100% recycled, 50% post-consumer waste), with soy and other vegetable-based inks. They fit into the mason jars lid so there’s no need for glue or string. And if they’re not damaged when jars are returned, we can reuse them! Bonus: the directions for use are printed on the back!

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