Refillable

In our early days of working with the low income group through #Transform, we introduced our Refill Truck as an easy and simple mechanism to refill home care liquids in their existing packaging instead of buying small sachets every week. In the beginning it served as a big attraction point and a lot of people came to refill liquids but convenience preceded sustainability. In due course of time, everyone went back to buying from their local kirana store which was right outside their house & the refill truck became redundant. This is what we realised :- - Everyone prefers convenience over sustainability - It is very difficult to change mindset - The refill truck could not carry a wide range of products beyond its 7 dispensers - Customer preference was always soaps and bars for home care products and we could only service liquid detergent from the refill truck - Narrow roads made refill truck access difficult & it became inconvenient for customers to come out of their area everytime to refill liquids. The solution was to hire local talent and make them our refill superheroes. They would help us execute a system where the packaging could be delivered and collected back, washed and put back in the system enabling a circular system. We also partnered with the local kirana stores and set up mini refill stations in multiple areas. The refill truck now is used as a major attraction point for local community gathering and events to educate people about reuse and refill mechanisms and single use plastic problem.

When we started working on #Transform project for low-income groups last year, we began by sending members from our team to lead the efforts. We soon realised that if we need this model to be a success, we will need to find people from within the community to spearhead it. That’s when the real transformation began. These community hero’s or like we like to call them “Refill Superhero’s” have been the major reason of success and growth for us. By integrating local talent, we built trust and fostered deeper connections with the community. Our Refill Superhero’s gave us so many invaluable insights and showed unwavering commitment to our mission of sustainability. From understanding the community, to taking surveys, to finding a product that fits their needs, to convincing people from the community to try it for the first time, their efforts & insights have been crucial. With their help & support, we intend to strengthen our mission of sustainability and eradicating single use plastic packaging from all communities in Mumbai.

We were fortunate to host delegates from Netherland Embassy in Trivandrum, last week. We got the opportunity to showcase our refill dispensing mechanism & product portfolio of sustainable products by Sanchi Bags to the delegates. We also spoke at length about the refill-reuse systems in India, customer acceptance and awareness of the model and the steps Netherland have been taking to setup various reuse-refill solutions. A big thank you to the team of Sanchi Bags along with GIZ India who made this possible for us.

We’re excited to share our Impact Report for the year 2023-2024. This impact report also talks about our sister concern company Cupable which primarily makes reusable & recyclable products for the F&B and Live Events Industry (More details in the document attached) The impact report covers our 4 verticals - Events, Delivery Packaging, Reusable Packaging and Refill. We talk about trends, our learnings and most importantly the impact we have created in 1 year! When we started Cupable in 2018 and Refillable in 2021, the aim was to solve the bigger and complex problems like single use plastic problem & we’ve always tried our best to stay true to our mission. We’ve grown massively in revenue and impact since we’ve started and are really looking forward to what’s in store for us in the upcoming years.

Recently, in Trivandrum, we concluded our last Environment Day Program of the month which was organised for Kerala Pollution Control Board at the Arts & Craft Village in Kovalam. Additionally, there was also an awareness and training program for the campaign secretariat members of Malinyamuktham Navakeralam. The focus of the second phase of this campaign, where we played a role, was sustainability & behavioural change. Lastly, none of this would be possible without Sanchi Bags who are our partners in Trivandrum & GIZ India #Trivandrum #sustainability #reuseoversingleuse #gizindia

Last year, we were among the few startups that were a part of the Pernod Ricard India Foundation & NSRCEL’s Circular Economy Incubation Program along with Sunbird Coconut Leaf Straws, Angirus® IND & Gud Gum | Plastic-free chewing gum As a part of the program, last week, we got the opportunity to visit their Gurugram headquarters to display our products and interact with employees. We even got the opportunity to interact with their leadership team and understand more about the programs in motion to achieve circularity along with so much more they intend to do in the near future. The founders along with leadership team were also a part of a panel discussion which was focusing on sustainability within the industry. Big congratulations to Pernod Ricard India Foundation & NSRCEL team for signing another MOU to support more startups in the circular economy space for the upcoming years. We can’t thank the NSRCEL & Pernod Ricard India team enough for this amazing opportunity.

There are these small things in life that leave you with a smile and motivation to do more. Very recently, one such thing happened where LuLu Group International Bangalore featured us on their wall for raising awareness about sustainable living, for a whole month, on the occasion of World Environment Month! 🌍 We felt even more privileged when we realised that we were sharing this Wall of Champions with the likes of Nayana Premnath, Hasiru Dala Innovations, Harsha Tej, Daily Dump, The Indian Ploggers Army Connecting the green dots, Go Native, The Preloved Co., Mrudula Joshi, Bare Necessities Zero Waste Solutions and many more. Huge shoutout to GreenMic.India for their support and Sahar Mansoor for making us feel inclusive even though we couldn’t attend the physical event. Here’s to working towards creating a better future!

We continued our #WorldEnvironmentDay celebrations in Trivandrum where we took our refill truck for a demo and got the opportunity to interact with so many people. It’s always fun to speak to our customers about different waste management systems, refill-reuse systems and how we can incorporate more services to add convenience and make it a one stop shop for all things sustainable. Mr. Zafar, the Founder of Sanchi Bags and our partner in Trivandrum has redesigned our truck where one side has been created to dispense organic home care liquids and the other side, to offer sustainable bags and products. We’re so grateful to Mr. Zafar, his team and GIZ India for facilitating more reuse-refill infrastructure in India. #trivandrum #reuse #refill #infrastructure #worldenvironmentday #sustainable #circulareconomy

We celebrated #WorldEnvironmentDay with the hard working women of Geeta Nagar, Colaba by origanising Bishi (a fun lottery based system for rewarding people) with the help of #Transform program. While setting up reuse-refill systems in low income groups, a lot of women told us how a little extra cash could help them, their family and their kids rise above their daily financial commitments. We used this insight to organise a monthly Bishi program (lottery system) where all the women who wished to participate had to return their old detergent powder packaging (reusable cup) which we would then wash, sterilise, reuse and refill with the new detergent powder and a lucky winner out of them would win a cash prize every month. We were so glad to see over 75+ women attend the event and more than 200+ women participate in it. Not only did this event help us enable a completely circular model and increase the return percentage of the packaging but also help the women financially. We also partnered with an NGO - #MissionRabies who educated the attendees about preventive measures to take if bitten by a stray dog. We couldn’t have done this without the support of the #Transform program and we look forward to engaging more women to create a circular system in the low income group. #lowincome #circularmodel #reuse #refill #ecosystem

Here’s a snippet of our Co-Founder Purav Desai who explains how we’re solving the #singleuseplastic problem using refill & reuse mechanisms. Marico Innovation Foundation