Plastic-free, sustainable and less waste: our company philosophy

At puremetics, we strive for zero-waste living. That's why we're gradually designing our corporate structure to be as plastic-free as possible - and that doesn't just apply to our products. “As an entrepreneur, this vision naturally caused me a lot more effort and expense when setting up the start-up two years ago. But I quickly realized: It is possible! Even if it is more cumbersome and expensive, I think a company should embark on this path,” says Chris Cosma, co-founder of puremetics.

“Of course, a 0% plastic culture is not possible. I'm thinking of things like keyboards or hygiene items, such as disinfectants. In addition, in some areas of production, materials such as glass items are unsuitable or even dangerous for use. Nevertheless: As a company, you can do an enormous amount for the environment with many small changes and adjustments and save plastic, waste and CO _2. ”

In this article we would like to share our experiences and perhaps encourage other companies to do the same. And you will also find some tips for private everyday life that will help you to achieve great things with small changes. Do you have any other helpful tips for us? Feel free to share them in the comments! ☺️

We rely on plastic-free packaging

The fact that our products and packaging are plastic-free is not really new information. Unfortunately, it is not that easy to find suitable plastic-free packaging. They often have their quirks and pitfalls. It can sometimes take weeks before we have found suitable models. The time and cost involved in some developments should not be underestimated. We are very grateful that our customers appreciate this effort and are willing to bear part of these costs. We are confident that once large scale production of suitable plastic-free packaging becomes the norm, we can become increasingly cheaper over the long term. There are now numerous more sustainable alternatives, such as delivery document bags made of tear-resistant paper, paper adhesive tape with thread reinforcement or cardboard boxes with a greaseproof rolled paper membrane.

We cook together

It might not sound that spectacular at first. However, we save an incredible amount of packaging waste, resources and also prevent food from being thrown away. Our team currently consists of eleven people. We plan our lunch together, buy the groceries unpackaged and, if possible, regionally and cook together. We have already saved a lot of groceries from the dustbin. And of course the whole thing has a cool side effect: the team grows closer together, everyone has a healthy and vegan lunch and is strengthened for the day.

We shop together

For our private purchases, we also get in touch to see if anyone else needs something from this store. We don't necessarily save plastic directly by doing this, but we do make a small contribution to reducing CO ₂ emissions. We save shipping routes and usually even take advantage of it because we get discounts from the retailers. But sometimes a new purchase isn't even necessary: ​​We regularly give each other things that we no longer need ourselves, but that someone else still enjoys. Or we buy things together that are rarely needed. For example, Isabelle and Kathi bought a cordless screwdriver together.

We shop plastic-free

Wherever possible, we buy plastic-free for our company. It starts with little things like the drinks in glass bottles without plastic caps for the team or rulers made of wood instead of plastic. We get our toilet paper and kitchen rolls in paper packaging made from bamboo fibers from Smooth Panda. We only use certified eco-paper for printing and cut the A4 sheets for delivery notes in half. So we can print them on DIN A 5 and save resources. Of course, we make sure to print as little as possible. Instead, we rely on electronic data transmission.

When it comes to purchasing our raw materials, we are in constant contact with manufacturers and suppliers to avoid using plastic. In practice, these are actually special requests that not every retailer wants to fulfil. Pretty strange actually, considering that we consciously leave something out and don't want it for free, right? In such cases, we just keep looking and are happy to pay a little more to find the perfect fit. For example, we insist on deliveries that no plastic strapping is used, items are not secured in polybags and natural filling material is used.

We recycle and upcycle

We still use a lot of things that some people might throw away. For example, we use shipping boxes from our suppliers and “shred” them into filling material. In our industrial area we have already spoken to our neighbors and also pick up the cardboard boxes from their suppliers. These would otherwise end up directly in the garbage, but we are giving them a new function.

In soap production, there are many sections that cannot be sold in this way. We melt them down and use them to fill our soap dispensers. In our team everyone has their own soap stone with wash bar, but for hygiene reasons we require liquid soap for guests.

We also do not dispose of items that are not perfect. Instead, we offer them cheaper at "With corners and edges". This is an online shop with a great concept: it gives imperfect goods a second chance.

We use collaborations

Our social media team always land exciting sweepstakes and brand collaborations with companies that share our philosophy. We always want to use this cooperation to make our company more sustainable. This is how we keep discovering great new ideas and alternatives. After our cooperation with Smooth Panda, for example, we switched from conventional toilet paper to a plastic-free version.

We use our products

If you're already sitting at the source, you can use it directly, right? The puremetics products are used both in the office and at home: Superfoods in the kitchen, soaps on the sink, fluff's in the shower, the cotton bag for the way to the office. And very important: dry shampoo, in case you've hit the snooze button too often...

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