Forgo
Forgo is a Swedish cosmetics brand selling mix-it-yourself products that minimize carbon emissions and avoid plastic packaging. The brand's first product is a concentrated powder that is mixed with tap water to make soap. One paper sachet contains 12 grams of powder and creates 250 milliliters of hand soap.
"The personal care industry is extremely wasteful," said Allon Libermann, design manager at Form Us With Love, and co-founder of Forgo. "We asked ourselves: is it really that hard to make something better? And the answer to that was: not really."
By selling products that you mix at home, Forgo drastically cuts down the amount of plastic needed to package and saves the emissions produced by shipping larger, heavier products (which contain mostly water). The hand soap starter set contains one reusable glass bottle and 3 plastic free paper sachets. The natural soap comes in two different scents – citrus and wood. These are distilled from post-industrial waste materials, specially wood offcuts from timber yards in Canada and the unused pulp and peel from organic juicing plants in the Caribbean. In an effort to keep transport-related CO2 emissions to a minimum, Forgo is on a mission to source all the ingredients in Europe and North America. "Unfortunately in the end, we had to make some compromises as most of the actual ingredients that go into the soap are tropical," said Libermann. "But we're working on creating a non-tropical version." "The pumps, which are the only plastic component, unfortunately come from China. There are no pump manufacturers in America – zero. But we're working to switch to one in the Netherlands. So it’s a work in progress but it's better to start with something than to not do anything at all."
Less than 10% of plastic ever created has been recycled. The choice for glass bottles and compostable refills was therefore easy. Forgo utilizes timeless materials like glass and steel for their bottles that are designed to last. All the single use packaging is made from 90% recycled paper and the remaining is FSC certified pulp. Not only is paper likely to be recycled, it's also degradable in nature within a few months.
My Green Goodiebag´s opinion on Forgo: I am so happy to see that there are now more companies offering refillables for cleaning products and soap. I truly hope this trend will continue to expand in other areas, such as personal care products. Forgo´s product is aesthetically pleasing and very easy to use and was delivered in a recycled card board box. Simple and no extra fillings nor plastics (all packaging can be thrown away in the cardboard recycling bin). When you are ready to make your soap, open the sachet, poor the content in the bottle and add water. It’s literally done in a minute. What you’ll get is a mixed solution and the pump will turn it into a foamy substance when you put it on your hands. The soap smells nice and feels good on the skin.
Based: Stockholm, Sweden
Ships to: North-America, Europe, UK
Products: At the moment hand soap, but more cosmetics products will be launched in the future.
Mission: To provide low waste, low carbon emissions personal care solutions.
Vision: To become the first choice for personal care refillables globally by designing real change.
URL: https://www.forgo.se
