Green Portal

2009 - ongoing

Italy

Negozio Leggero is for all those who want to contribute to the preservation of the environment, reduce their impact, eat healthy good food that has been verified throughout the supply chain, care for their bodies with natural products.

Negozio Leggero’s main objectives are to spread the zero-waste lifestyle choice, eliminate unnecessary packaging, allow consumers to see products in their beauty without being filtered by packaging, and allow consumers to buy products also in small quantities.

Negozio Leggero works to eliminate and reduce packaging in its entire supply chain, thus not only for sales. Negozio Leggero encourages consumers to visit their shops and bring their own containers, bags and jars for the bulk groceries. The containers are weighted, calibrated and then filled, thus only the product is being paid. If consumers decide to buy online, products will arrive in glass containers with metal lids (they can be returned at the shop or collected for free by Negozio Leggero, but, to make the return transport more sustainable and environmentally efficient, consumers should provide at least 20 empties in a box, ideally reusing the same box and materials provided in the shipping), or in lightweight paper bags that consumers can reuse or in fabric bags. All the empties received by Negozio Leggero are not wasted, but sent to sterilization and then refilled again.

Behind Negozio Leggero’s scope there is a study conducted by Ecologos on plastic. Plastic has invaded the market because of its convenience and cheapness, although it has spread and damaged the environment. For this reason, it is essential to rethink consumption, minimize the use of plastic and opt for plastic free solutions.

Negozio Leggero only offers plant-based and cruelty-free products – over 1500 products (personal care products, household care products, food - coffee, flours, dried fruit, candies, legumes, cereals, pasta, bakery products, spices, the, wine – books, soaps, make up). Regarding food, a small percentage of the products contains honey, such as propolis candies and supplements, because this kind of supply chain is highly valued and appreciated.

Negozio Leggero follows the principles of circular economy, thus meaning that they work to minimize waste and make their systems closed. For example, they receive the products in big canisters that, once exhausted, go back to their original supply and are refilled. What the consumer does in the store or though the e-commerce is also done by Negozio Leggero with supplier corporates.

If consumers buy from a location where there is a Negozio Leggero shop, the delivery will be carried with the bike delivery service.

The initiative is widely known on national level; many shops have followed the example and have implemented the use of empties to buy products. Many newspapers have written articles to promote this initiative. Thanks to this project, the Italian supply chains are reducing the use of plastic for packaging and opting for more sustainable solutions such as paper.

Empties have been so far only used to refill water or drinks, but Negozio Leggero has worked to revolutionize the system and use empties also for products that by regulation cannot be sold in bulk. Thus, it is possible to buy everything, such as toothpaste, shampoo, detergents, soaps, food (jam for example). For this reason, Negozio Leggero has the record of being the world’s first network of stores specializing in selling bulk and returnable empties.

In order to encourage more sustainable choices, Negozio Leggero offers an avatar on the website that calculates the corresponding environmental savings in terms of plastic, water, kwh and CO2 that would have been required to produce and dispose the same packaged product.

High transferability. Negozio Leggero has launched the campaign “IOSCELGOSFUSO” (I choose bulk) in order to encourage corporates and consumers to take part in the initiative of buying products in bulks in empties.

Negozio Leggero has created a website on which they provide information on best practices for reducing single-use plastics and offer sustainable alternatives. https://www.liberidallaplastica.info/