Bulk sales
Why are bulk sales important?
We all want our homes to be clean, and the cleaning products market offers us countless options. Every household has at least one dishwashing gel, laundry detergent, and all-purpose cleaner, and there's probably a whole cabinet full of other products besides them.
Look at how many of your cleaning products are in plastic packaging and how often you buy new ones.
According to data from the National Statistical Institute, in 2021, 81,962,859 kg of “detergents and cleaning agents” and 3,117,893,318 pieces of “cartridges, bottles, vials and similar plastic products” were sold in Bulgaria (you can see the statistics here ).
Ultimately, we buy bottles and then pay for their collection and disposal. But the highest price we will pay is the cost of pollution.
Just imagine the packaging of detergents and cleaning products sold in Bulgaria in 2021... and so on year after year. Not to mention the invisible waste that is poured into the sewer after every cleaning - the toxic chemicals.
Does this mean we should stop buying things wrapped in plastic? YES, and at the same time, there's no way this will happen overnight and on a massive scale.
At Tierra Verde Bulgaria, we believe that offering bulk and bulk products is an alternative that is a solution and helps us meet our needs in an environmentally friendly way.
Any product can be sold without packaging. This applies to food, drinks, cosmetics and many other products for everyday use. Our focus is on environmentally friendly cleaning and laundry detergents, but we hope that our example will inspire many manufacturers and retailers to follow us.
What do we mean by bulk and bulk sales?
You run out of laundry gel, you go to the store with your own bottle and refill it.
Stores are stocked with 5L or 25L containers and when the contents are sold, they are returned to production and refilled. This closes the loop and can completely eliminate single-use packaging from the manufacturer to the end customer.
" Tierra Verde Bulgaria" was established in 2018 with the vision of a world without toxic chemistry and with zero waste.
All of our products are 100% free of toxic chemicals, and to reduce plastic waste we do the following:
- All of our powdered or dry detergents are packaged entirely in paper. This eliminates plastic waste during production. In the next phase, we want to offer bulk options that will completely eliminate the waste generated.
- With liquid detergents, it is impossible to use entirely paper packaging. That is why, first of all, our products are highly concentrated. In one 1 l bottle of ECO Soapnut Laundry Gel, there are 33 washes (30 ml = 1 wash). As a standard for other products on the market, for one wash you need between 50 and 120 ml. This means that for the same amount of washes you need to buy from 2 to 4 bottles. The concentrated content of our liquid products is the first, most minimal step that we offer from the very beginning.
- In February 2019, we launched 5L packaging for our liquid detergents. Initially, the packaging was a bag-in-box type (like 5L wine boxes), which saved about 250g of pure plastic compared to 1L packaging.
- Since 2021, we have been offering 5 l and 25 l cans, which we then collect and send back to the production for refilling. There are now over 10 locations in Sofia, Varna and Burgas that offer bulk and liquid options. Check out our partner stores where you can find our bulk and liquid ecological products. Small steps are changing things, but we have a long way to go.
Our goal is to one day build a production facility in Bulgaria. This will also significantly reduce transport emissions.
To develop the bulk and bulk sales market in Bulgaria, we will need YOUR HELP. The power to change the way we offer products is in the hands of every consumer. Ask for bulk options. Ask for them! Many sellers will never have heard of it - “Bulk ecological cleaning products?! There is no such thing.”, but if more people start to be interested, more stores will respond to the demand, and we will be able to offer them a solution.
Today, the Czech Republic and Slovakia are absolute leaders in offering bulk and liquid options. Already 6 DM stores, supermarkets and over 330 stores in the Czech Republic and Slovakia offer Tierra Verde sro bulk preparations - see the map for inspiration.
We believe that this can become a reality in Bulgaria too!!!!! Let's be part of the solution together, not the problem! There is always an alternative!
Yours,
Vihra and Irena
Co-founders of Tierra Verde Bulgaria