Background and circular economy
Launching in 2018, Unpackaged Eco facilitates refilling everyday household items such as eco-friendly, non-toxic cleaning products at their partner stores, instead of purchasing the product in new plastic packaging, to reduce plastic waste.
Unpackaged Eco seeks value retention for plastic packaging via reuse to place itself on circular the economy value hill. They demonstrate an advancing maturity level in the circular economy (19/25). Their implemented circular business model, environmental impact awareness, raising stakeholder environmental awareness, and having most of the processes in place for environmentally conscious activities are identified and clearly defined.
Drivers for circular economy adoption
Internally, it was the personal values and passion for sustainability of the founder and seeing the business potential and financial benefits that drove them to adopt a circular economy model, while the appeal from the market for such a product as people are constantly looking for easy ways to reduce negative environmental impact were the key external drivers.
Circular economy practices adopted
- Non-toxic material
- Reuse bulk product containers
- Reuse packaging by customers by refilling them
- Reduce the waste by collecting the spillage
Company changes with the adoption
Unpackaged Eco adopted the circular economy model from the inception.
Barriers and challenges
Barriers and challenges include:
- Shortage of financial resources
- Capacity to have workstations in more partners stores
Critical success factors for circular economy
Critical success factors include:
- Vision and commitment of the founder
- Collaboration with partner stores
- Changing customer mindset via education and engagement
Benefits of adopting a circular economy
Internally, Unpackaged Eco see economic benefits from adopting the circular economy model, while externally, they have benefitted by brand awareness growing. The ability to provide a better product to the customer that is cheaper due to no packaging cost and developing a customer base that appreciates ecological products have been notable benefits.
