"Naked" Products Are Good for the Environment and Your Wallet

| By Leon Kirschgens & Jacqueline Plaster
Unpackaged products are now also produced in large quantities.

Unpackaged products do without unnecessary plastic. Supermarket shelves are still full of plastic packaging. But the first changes give good hope. Read here why unpackaged products are good for everyone.

In the supermarket, the shelves usually look like the picture below: hundreds of cosmetic products, packed in plastic packaging, sometimes large, sometimes small. Sometimes, the packaging even weighs more than the actual contents, just to make the product look bigger. Whether it's toothpaste, shampoo or soap - once the contents are used up, there remains a large, useless package whichsometimes cannot even be recycled.

A trend that has emerged in recent years promises to remedy this situation: "naked", package-free cosmetics. Unpackaged shops are on the rise in many cities. There you can weigh the products and buy them in reusable containers you brought along. Supermarkets are also increasingly discovering naked cosmetics as a business model. But the trend goes beyond the lack of packaging. The products do not only come without conventional plastic packaging, but also without synthetic preservatives and microplastics, such as those found in shower gel.


Unpackaged products often even save money

Naked shower gel is produced with a concentrated formula without water. Only when it comes into contact with water in the shower does it soften and form foam. At the same time, it is much more economical than liquid shower gel because it is more concentrated and free of water. "Naked shower gel behaves just like liquid, you can use both in the same way," says the product developer of a large unpackaged manufacturer. "The products must of course be as good as, or even better than liquid products." Only then are they a real alternative for many people. In addition, many unpackaged products save money because many manufacturers charge up to half the price of the packaging.
By the way: The trend does not stop at other areas either, even in the household - where plastic-free utensils still have a meagre shadowy existence - there are more and more products that replace conventional products in plastic counterfeits. First and foremost, the so-called Aleppo soap should be mentioned here. This all-round soap is mainly composed of olive oil and additives such as laurel oil and is suitable for - It is a declaration of love to minimalism, and of course to environmental protection.


You can make a difference

Surely, there is an unpacked shop near you. Alternatively, you can get together with other people and order unpackaged products on the internet. It is true that packaging waste is also generated then. But this is often considerably less than if everyone would buy conventional products for themselvesin the supermarket.