The ‘Gouden Noot’ jury nominated our sustainable packaging design for Seepje for the final round of this renowned packaging innovation competition, together with nine other finalists. On October 17th, our team will present our packaging design, made for a circular economy, in front of the jury. On November 22nd, the jury will announce who takes home the bronze, silver or gold award at the official award ceremony at the A’DAM Tower in Amsterdam.
We designed this sustainable packaging for Seepje’s new range of liquid detergents. The key ingredient of these detergents is an extract of the peels of the Sapindus Mukurossi fruits from Nepal. These ‘super peelings’ contain a natural kind of soap, which is released when exposed to water. Pulverized by the farmers, it’s turned into a liquid extract once it’s in The Netherlands. Generous Minds helped Seepje with its strategy and asked us to develop an iconic bottle that would help Seepje to scale up for retailers like Albert Heijn.
We came up with the archetypical shape of a bar of soap, of course, a wink to clean. The shape offers the functionality that is needed but also gives the brand a visual imprint that is powerful. The ‘soap’ shape, pastel colors and soft touch all refer to softness. Other surprising details help this bottle stand out from the crowd: the embossing immediately shows the type of detergent, once the easily detachable sleeve (waste separation) has been taken off. In line with its sustainably produced ingredients, the bottles are made of Dutch recycled HDPE plastic. At the bottom, it says: ‘I’m made from recycled plastic.’
They are now available in more than 1400 stores in Belgium and The Netherlands, while distribution to German retailers is in the pipeline. Based on their laundry detergent success, they launched all-purpose cleaners and recently a dishwashing detergent. The growth in retail outlets selling Seepje brings an increase in sales but also brand recognition. The young entrepreneurs are collaborating with farmers in Nepal, who take care of harvesting and processing these peelings in a socially responsible way. In 2017 Seepje won a NL Packaging Award and a Silver Pentaward.
‘De Gouden Noot’ is a Dutch packaging innovation contest that is organized every two years. Organizer NVC’s (the association of Dutch packaging experts) goal is to stimulate innovation in packaging and packaged products. The award is named after the unique solid golden walnut trophy that represents sustainable, effective and innovative packaging. At its latest edition in 2016, we won a gold award for the mini paint rollers we created for AkzoNobel and our Ultimaker 2 Go packaging was a runner-up. Let’s keep our fingers crossed for this year!
