Every year humanity produces 280 million tonnes of plastic products that quickly become waste, including a bevy of single-use items. A good portion of those are shampoo, dish soap and laundry detergent containers.

Chilean company Algramo is helping to reduce the environmental toll taken by those products. In grocery stores across Chile and in some locations in the United Kingdom, consumers can refill daily necessities, like shampoo, washing-up liquid and detergent, through Algramo vending machines, bypassing the need for new containers.

This also provides consumers with economic savings by alleviating the “poverty tax,” which forces those with lower incomes to incur higher expenses for not buying products in bulk.

Plastic pollution causes myriad health issues, impedes economies and endangers vital ecosystem services. Shifting away from single-use plastic products and promoting reuse and circularity – where resources are valued and not wasted – is considered pivotal to ending plastic pollution.

“Circular economies need large scales to be efficient,” says Amin Guenim, Algramo’s Chief of Business Development. “At Algramo, we are making circularity desirable and accessible to everyone.”