Introducing Our New REFILL STATIONS!!

Mineral Sunscreen, Refill Station. Refill sustainable skincare and beauty in new Zealand

Remember what we mentioned in our article on Plastic Facts last week? 14 MILLION TONNES of plastic end up in our Oceans EVERY YEAR?

The bottles, tubes, and containers used annually by the cosmetic industry add up to 120 billion units of plastics packaging.

But how does this hurt our planet?

"Of the 120 billion units of plastic packaging used each year, 70% ends up in landfills. Bioplastics do not degrade naturally or within the average human lifespan. They can be composted, but require such an intense degree of heat to break down that they must be returned to an industrial compost site." - Office Of Sustainability

There are a lot of sunscreen tubes out there being passed around, some are moving to plastic that can be recycled, and that's great. If you are unsure if your tube can be recycled, just look for the recycle symbol and number, if it is a number 2 (HDPE) you can put it into the kerbside recycling.

Keep in mind though it's pretty hard to clean inside a tube ready for recycling, which must get you thinking, will this actually be recycled?

And then there are the lids, most lids can not be recycled and off they go into landfill.....

So we have a plan!

Here at Sol we want to change this mindset. Our Packaging choices, paired with our brand new Refill System we believe is truly the way forward. We are excited to lead the Suncare Industry towards a circular model, which we believe all businesses should be working towards. Reduce ->Refill -> Recycle.

Our Sunscreen Stations will be trialled with 3 of our stockists.

- The Fillery, Eco Grocer located in Whitianga ~In store Soon

- The Re-Store Eco Market located in Thames ~ NOW IN STORE

- Swop, Shop without packaging in Raglan ~ In-store Soon

But how is it going to work?

Very good question, and something we have put hours of thought, trial and error into to get it right!!

Step 1 - Clean out your empty 200ml jar (currently only 200ml jars are available during the trial). The safest way to clean them out is a bit of hot soapy water, on the INSIDE of the jar only. Give it a clean. You can even sterilise them with some rubbing alcohol. Give them a good wipe with a clean cloth.

Step 2 - Head to one of our stockists listed above, follow the super easy instructions, and you have yourself a clean, freshly refilled Sol Sunscreen!! (And helped the planet AND saved yourself a few dollars in the process!!)

Step 3 - In the interest of a closed-loop recycling system, that tube you just emptied to refill your jar will be sent back to us to be sterilised, refilled and sent back to the supplier to be used again and again, over and over.

Together we can make collective change. We would love for you to visit one of the three stores listed above, give it a try and let us know what you think! The goal is to have the refill stations in the stores of all our stockists, but for now, we are grateful to the 3 stores that are part of this trial.

If you visit one of our stockists, we'd love to know what you think, so we can continue to improve the process for our customers and our stockists.

Steph and the Sol Crew.

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