While packaging plays a super important part in our ability to distinguish between and decide on what we want to purchase, it mostly ends up in a crumpled pile in the trash. Brands spend millions of dollars a year on honing and developing the perfect covering or container for their products, but imagine now what would happen if they used the money they spent on packaging to hone and develop the products themselves.
Taking this idea to heart, a zero-waste supermarket opened recently in Berlin’s trendy Kreuzberg neighborhood. Welcome to Original Unverpackt (which translates to “originally unpackaged”) where PREcycling, not just recycling, is all the rage. It is a phenomenon that won’t just shape the future of consumerism, but also the future of the “convenience is king” driven world as we know it. Coined as the “beginning of the end of packaging madness”, Original Unverpackt is the brainchild of Sara Wolf and Milena Glimbovski, who quit their 9-to-5 pursuits to found the venture, which brought in over €100 000 (130 000 USD) from crowd funding in May 2014.
Unlike other waste-conscious business models such as Oregon’s First Alternative Natural Food Co-op or initiatives like Berlin Tüt Was‘ Guinness World Record for the longest plastic bag chain, Original Unverpackt actually combats the global waste problem at its roots by selling unpackaged products in the first place.
How does it work? Revolutionizing the everyday shopping experience, it grants consumers the choice to decide not only where their food comes from, but exactly how much they buy and how it’s packaged. Dry goods (rice, pasta, nuts, gummy bears, cereal and spices) are dispensed in bulk from so-called gravity bins, while liquid goods (juice, oils, alcohol and yogurt) are sold in bottles or jars with a deposit on them. Customers bring their own containers or borrow recycled bags, and to ensure they get bang for their buck, their containers are weighed and marked accordingly when they enter the shop, the origin of the product is listed next to its price and there’s no minimum limit on how much they buy.
Affirming the age-old axiom “location is everything”, the store, designed by NAU Berlin architect Michael J. Brown, is not only positioned next to a fair trade clothing boutique, a bike shop and a vegetarian bistro, but also directly across from Berlin’s quintessential hipster port-of-call Görlitzer Park. No wonder it’s already a hit among Kreuzbergians.
We caught up with Original Unverpackt cofounder Milena Glimbovski for a private tour and chat about how she and her partner cooked up the business idea (quite literally) over dinner two years ago.
“One evening, Sara and I were in the kitchen and we realized how much packaging waste we throw into the trash everyday. We thought, “Why do we even need all this packaging?” Not only is it irritating, but it’s also a real challenge for our environment. 16 million tons of packaging end up as waste every year in Germany alone.Therefore, we founded Original Unverpackt to actually have a choice – as consumers, as vendors, as producers,” she said.
With a no brand-name policy and around 80 percent of the store’s products being organic, Original Unverpackt reduces transportation costs and energy use by sourcing their products locally, offering, according to their crowd funding page, “no pasta of doubtful origin, but instead porcino penne noodles from local manufacturers.”
“Obviously our bananas and sugar aren’t from Brandenburg,” she laughs. “However, our marmalade is from Spreewald, 100 kilometers (62 miles) southeast of Berlin. Our supplier lives on a farm there with his mom and aunt who make the marmalade themselves. Even our beauty products are made by a woman in Berlin’s Tempelhof suburb.”
Unlike traditionally overpriced eco-friendly food co-ops which typically cater to more affluent shoppers, the store offers both organic and conventional budget-friendly alternatives, with most of their products costing the equivalent or less than they would at the average German grocery store.
“We’re honestly just consumers who wanted to change something by making it possible for people like us to be able to afford to live sustainably. Everyone should be able to afford to help the environment in any way they can!”
“Sarah and I have never been “rolling in money” so-to-speak, so we know exactly what it’s like to not be able to afford expensive organic products. Also, we’re not food industry experts. In fact, we’ve never even worked in a supermarket! We’re honestly just consumers who wanted to change something by making it possible for people like us to be able to afford to live sustainably. Everyone should be able to afford to help the environment in any way they can!” she said.
Going where no big-shot grocery conglomerates have gone before, Original Unverpackt proves it’s possible to steer away from brand-name products without smothering their customers with aisle-upon-aisle of generic product choices.
“You won’t find countless brands for each product because one, the right one, is enough. Supermarket chains overload customers with too much choice these days, when really they’re just selling the same products in different packaging!” she said.
Customers at Original Unverpackt have surprised the founders by how much they enjoyed bringing their own containers to the store.
“They see it as a fun new shopping experience. Some customers even brought in glasses and said, ‘I want to put pasta in this,’ and we were like, ‘Huh? But it’s a glass? Okay, let’s try to make it work!’ One guy even used an old metal Fisherman’s Friend container to store chewable toothpaste tablets. People are getting more creative and excited to join our zero-waste revolution!” she said.
In terms of the bigger picture, as Gen Y has managed to flood our planet with waste, Milena and Sara believe it’s time for them to take the responsibility to fix it for future generations.
“It’s so deeply ingrained in my mind that the environment is important. You see the consequences of global warming all around you with our increasingly frequent summer heat waves and abnormally cold winters. Also, you constantly see animals washed up on the shore, suffocated by plastic waste.”
According to Milena, though, it’s not about donning a superhero cape and trying to save the whole world.
“You don’t have to voyage to Australia to save the koalas or go to Africa to build a house for a family. Simply ask yourself, ‘What are the little things I can do in my everyday life I do to make a difference?’ Like taking shorter showers or shopping in our store!”
After only a few weeks, their supermarket is off to a smashing start, with crowds spilling out of their doors most afternoons. Milena says it’s a surreal feeling:”I think to myself every day, ‘Wow, people are really are shopping in OUR store. WE created this!'”
She recalls her first shopping trip to the store: “When I came home with my groceries, I really had no packaging in my bag at all. In that moment, it really hit home that this is why Sara and I dreamed up this concept in the first place!”
Although the two Berliners sewed the store’s initial seeds, Milena stressed that their success has really been a team effort.
“The media keep putting Sara and I in the limelight because I guess the “two young girls from Berlin” angle makes for a better story. Sure, we’re the founders but we’re actually a whole team of seven people!” she said.
Their dream team is already on the lookout for new premises to open a second store in the near future.
“We’d love to open up an even bigger store with even more products!” Milena said.
All they need now are shop attendants whooshing around on hoverboards. If you want a glimpse of the future without the hassle of mastering the space-time continuum, check out Original Unverpackt on Wiener Straße 16, Berlin for yourself!
All images via Mathais Wasik / wasikphoto.com
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