Waterless solutions to mitigate single-use plastic pollution
THE PROBLEM
One hotel chain alone can provide to its guests HALF-BILLION LITTLE BOTTLES of personal care products, every year, representing a massive quantity of plastic waste after use. Toiletries amenities represent a cost for the establishments, but since it is part of the travelling experience can not be compromised. The search for greener alternatives without compromising the guest experience is crucial.
Hoteliers are to phasing out these individual amenities and making the switch to alternative options to minimise plastic usage by replacing tiny bottles for bigger reusable dispensers. However, even by refilling the dispenser, the regular product bulk buying requires plastic gallons of the product. Our waterless strategy is capable of tackling this secondary source of plastic.
Since recycling is not the best solution to manage the resources, cultivating a circular economy around plastic is required to tackle the environmental impact of tourism. For this reason, it is necessary to redesign alternatives now but without compromising the guest experience.
Our project aims to ensure that the industry has a smooth transition to bulk use or non-plastic products by offering a “Buy once, refill for life” strategie to individual toiletries bottles in hotels, through a lean technology that facilitates the logistics of bulk personal care items.
THE SOLUTION
Our personal care formulations are biodegradable and exclude potential hazardous components and microbeads, ensuring the non ecotoxicity in water supplies and surrounding lands. The reused bottles strategy is complemented with a material substitution from regular plastic to alternatives as silicon coated glass, ceramic or wheat straw plastic alternative.
THE VALUE
Instead of just refilling reusable containers with regular personal care products, our project's product is concentrated for posterior solubilization which facilitates storing large portions.
To fill 100 bottles of 200 ml, a regular product requires an area around 1m² and 21 kg of product that comes inside large polyethylene containers.
Our product only requires to store and transport 2 kg in compostable packages that fit inside of a drawer. This has a positive impact on the distribution chain as it is not exhaustively dependent on supply, susceptible to financial and logistical factors such as variations in exchange rates or delivery time.
THE MARKET
Our market is situated as the hotelry market in the Iberian peninsula. In 2019, Spain was the second most visited country in the world, recording 83.7 million tourists which marked the seventh consecutive year of record-beating numbers. Tourism is now the biggest sector of the Portuguese economy, accounting for 8.2% of national GDP in 2018. Together, these two border countries offer nearly one million rooms for its touristics guests. We aim to enter in this market to tackle hotels single-use bottles by switching to a reusable option, decreasing pollution and hotel costs.
First we will act in a regional market but our idea can be easily spread to other touristic countries. The project has great potential for scalability not only because of the readiness of its production process (which is easy to reproduce and does not require local production of high complexity and size) but also because of its diversified capacity to commercialize the idea.
THE MISSION
Our product opens the possibility of substituting thousands of tiny toiletries bottles for one durable and reused bottle by room. LESSEN has the potential to significantly reduce plastics manufacturing and waste in the environment by introducing new innovative solutions within the value chain. Through our strategy, in one year, we can switch more than 350 tiny plastic bottles for just one alternative reusable bottle, representing a difference of 15kg of plastic consumption per single hygiene product category per hotel room. These values, when scaled, can represent significant mitigation of tones of plastic waste over the years.
When you change the usage of disposable plastic toiletries for a sustainable refillable one based on a different source, for the consumer/guest you maintain the same end but with a much more eco conscious option. Taking the buyer's point of view, like hotel chains, the switch turns out to be more attractive in many ways, such as added value of their service, as profitability on account of earning time due easy access of product in a lean stock and an efficient logistic system.
THE COMPANY
We are building a company with an innovative business model centered on products with ecological added value. Our approach focuses on three key factors: reducing plastic use in the market, minimizing water consumption and related costs in the manufacturing process, and developing a greener, biodegradable formula. All of this is carried out with a strong commitment to environmental and social ethics, reflecting Lessen's core values.
As a company founded by women and immigrants with diverse backgrounds in operations, business, and science, we have firsthand experience with the significant disparities in opportunities between genders. At Lessen, we are committed to fostering diversity and inclusion across all areas, ensuring that individuals of different races, genders, and abilities have opportunities for career advancement—not just limited to operational roles through affirmative action, but truly empowered to grow into leadership positions.
THE TEAM
We believe that being part of a small and efficient work team like ours makes the organization's management and development activities more seamless. Our team consists of three members, all with experience in both laboratory practice and project management, ensuring smooth and effective communication.
We have worked together on various projects, gaining expertise in material chemistry, leading initiatives, and publishing high-impact papers. Additionally, we have expanded our skills with a specialization in business strategies.
Every day, we learn to navigate the challenges and frustrations inherent in scientific work, constantly pushing ourselves to grow professionally and build a more meaningful career.
