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Redesign and change products for less waste

Redesign and change products for less waste

What has the Redesign (engl. to redesign) with Zero Waste to do? It's simple: if you make sure that suppliers redesign their products and get rid of unnecessary plastic packaging or other resource-wasting material, you will have a greater choice of plastic-free alternatives in the future. Today I'll show you how you can make a difference as an individual consumer. Let's go!

Why you should share your concerns with manufacturers

I can speak from my own experience, since I myself have make a few products and offer to CareElite project to be able to finance it. Of course, I make sure that the products on offer are ecological and as plastic-free as possible. However, this is not the rule, as an ordinary manufacturer or supplier is very profit-oriented and rarely if ever takes environmental issues into account. As sad as it is, you should always point this out to the manufacturer if you see a product in unnecessary plastic packaging, for example. The more people do this, the quicker the manufacturer will redesign the product and adapt it to the customer's wishes.

How to ensure that a product is redesigned?

Redesign products for less waste Zero Waste


Never underestimate the power of your voice, because you are a potential customer. A provider is always interested in what the customer thinks. So give them the feedback they want. Here are some examples of how you can point out product defects or suggestions for changes to a manufacturer or supplier.

Call

You will usually also find a telephone number on every company website. A phone call is a great way to voice your concerns and suggestions for improvement. You wouldn't believe how many people now plastic free living and will do the same. The disadvantage of calling is that your message can go down faster than with the next option.

Write email

If you don't have a phone number or would like to make an initial approach by message, you can also send an e-mail. This has the advantage that the message only needs to be forwarded to the boss. As a rule, you cannot reach the managing director of a company who is authorized to make decisions directly.

Contact on Facebook

There are many young people in the social media teams of companies who are certainly more open to change than many a boss who is stuck in old habits. Here, too, the information must first be passed on to them. In my experience, however, the probability of this happening is very high.

Use Replace Plastic App

A company can also feel the power of its customers if everyone sticks together. In the Replace Plastic App you can scan the barcode of a product and easily submit a suggestion for improvement to the manufacturer. The more people who scan the product, the faster the manufacturer will respond. In the article Zero Waste Apps you can find more smartphone apps for less waste in everyday life.

Provoke a shitstorm

Admittedly, creating a kind of storm against a manufacturer on social media is the hard way to draw their attention to a problem. However, if manufacturers are intransigent or, in particularly blatant cases, produce plastic waste or other problems, a shitstorm is an effective way of forcing change. It should also be said, however, that this is difficult to plan 😉.

Redesigning is like providing for the future

Have you heard the term "operational blindness"? It means that as an entrepreneur you are so stuck in your own processes that you can no longer see where there is potential for optimization in the company. Other entrepreneurs don't care about changes at all and certainly not about environmental aspects. This is because they generally don't make any money, but actually increase costs. For these reasons, it is simply incredibly important to contact a manufacturer with your suggestions for improvement.

What do you think about this and have you ever given a provider a tip? Either way, I look forward to hearing about your experiences or ideas in the comments below.

Stay clean,

Replace things Zero Waste

PS.: Under Submit product suggestions for plastic-free products you can suggest me a product that we should launch as a plastic-free alternative. Feel free to read more basic rules of the Zero Waste lifestyle, such as the Reuse of things. Here you can also view my Download the plastic-free e-book "Get rid of the garbage" for free.

Coffee box Suggestions for improvement Newsletter

* Links with asterisks are so-called Affiliate linksIf you click on it and buy something, you automatically and actively support my work with CareElite.de, as I receive a small share of the proceeds - and of course nothing changes in the product price. Many thanks for your support and best regards, Christoph!

Christoph Schulz

Christoph Schulz

I'm Christoph, an environmental scientist and author - and here at CareElite I'm campaigning against plastic waste in the environment, climate change and all the other major environmental problems of our time. Together with other environmentally conscious bloggers, I want to give you tips & tricks for a naturally healthy, sustainable life as well as your personal development.

4 thoughts on “Produkte umgestalten für weniger Müll”

  1. Hello Christoph,
    Your contribution speaks to me from the soul. ...I've been fighting windmills for some time now and can't seem to get any further. What is it about? I have written to several organic dairies and asked why they can only offer lactose-free milk in tetra packs and not in glass bottles. The answers were either always the same: "...this is not feasible for technical production reasons....blablabla..." or there was simply no answer at all, which I find very arrogant and ignorant, to say the least. I had really already thought of a shitstorm, as you describe it so beautifully. I also thought about convincing people via blog not to buy said milk anymore, and to show alternatives...
    So it would be really nice if I could finally find allies who think like me, so that you don't always feel like "David against Goliath".
    In this sense
    many greetings
    Jeanne
    P.S. I got a package of "The Best" from Ferrero as a Christmas present; the amount of plastic that came to light surpassed everything I had ever known about packaging waste - pure madness! It's time to take urgent action here, too - what do you think?

    1. Hi Jeanne! Thank you for your lovely comment and your tireless efforts.
      It will pay off eventually. Companies will also gradually understand that it pays to switch to plastic-free. That's because there's still a lot of free advertising in the media at the moment, because it's still something special.
      Ferrero... yes, I can imagine that very well. Start a petition at change.org or other platforms. Unfortunately, I don't have the time to create petitions for individual products. When you're ready, I'll be happy to share!
      Also use the Replace Plastic App, that goes directly out to the manufacturers 🙂
      Always remember that you are not alone. Many people turn to the manufacturers.
      Many greetings
      Christoph

  2. I have written to "my" dairy and asked them to also offer quark and cream cheese in jars and butter in paper. Also pulses from organic suppliers and muesli from organic suppliers. I received many replies and often the comment that there are no alternatives on the part of the packaging industry. I'm not letting up. I hope others will get in touch too.

    1. Hi Kerstin! Super, you have even suggested the alternatives 😉 Exactly, stay tuned!
      Best regards
      Christoph

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