Beiersdorf has unveiled a shower-gel refill station, which it is testing in several health & beauty stores in Germany as it looks to find ways of reducing plastic packaging waste.
“While the concept of refilling is not entirely new, the personal care category does not boast widespread use of this technology yet,” Caroline Zia, senior formula developer at Beiersdorf said in submission to Designboom magazine.
The beauty company said it aims to “minimise, slow down, reduce and close its material cycles” with the latest innovation.
“We had to identify the best possible scenario for the consumer and for sustainability. Not all formulations are suitable for such a concept,” she explained.
“The formulations need to withstand the additional burden of refilling and we had to carefully choose our products after extensive internal testing. Also the machine had to be programmed for additional cleaning protocols. this way we could guarantee multiple filling loops and still meet our safety and sustainability criteria.”
Marta Suslow, concept designer, Beiersdorf’s packaging department said that the team fine tuned the in-store concept to suit the retailer’s interior requirements.
The pilot project’s trial period will run for over six to eight months in selected DM stores, so the skincare company can further learn on consumer acceptance and know more about its usability and supply chain handling.
”We are looking forward to receiving as much feedback as possible on the design, functionality and sustainable brand experience and hope for a high consumer involvement,” Koushik Sreedhar, lab manager, said.
