The flustix Plastic-Free Stars 2018!

You nominated, we tested!

Two new plastic-free products carry the flustix seal

For #plasticfreejuly – this year’s plastic-free month of July – flustix launched a campaign of a special kind. Back then we wanted to know from our community on Facebook and Instagram which products you consider particularly sustainable, innovative and possibly plastic-free. Your favourite products, so to speak, which we could then award the flustix plastic-free seal after thorough testing. To qualify, the products had to meet our flustix standard in line with the plastic-free definition. Product, packaging and/or contents have to be plastic-free to be certified with our seal.

And keeping on top of the flood of nominations was not at all easy. Over the past months we got to know many innovative products and start-ups through your social media nominations. We examined everything very closely. We took every product apart into its individual components, and our independent partner laboratory WESSLING analysed each one chemically in minute detail. There were clearly many interesting, ecologically sustainable products such as deodorants without aluminium salts, tea filters and drinks bottles. Yet even in the seemingly most sustainable products, against all expectations, that last little bit still lurked: plastic.

How do you test a product for freedom from plastic?

The process of testing a product for freedom from plastic is not always easy. Our partner laboratory WESSLING does pioneering work for us in particle and environmental analysis. The laboratory has developed special chemical test procedures for detecting and analysing plastics. Today the tiniest particles can be detected and different plastics classified. That makes WESSLING an international, credible authority in material analysis.

One primary difficulty in material analysis is, for example, that certain liquid forms of plastic cannot be detected analytically, which is a problem above all in the case of cleaning products and cosmetics. Following the usual definition, only those solid plastic particles smaller than 5 millimetres therefore count as primary microplastics. Another difficulty is that even products that are sustainable and really use almost no plastic at all are required by law to carry a kind of hygiene sticker meant to protect them from being opened prematurely. So plastic is used here to protect the consumer – and that although German consumers have long wanted less plastic waste, as the TNS Infratest study shows.

For most products, however, we are quite sure that the market will soon offer plastic-free alternatives as packaging material and hygiene protection. We got to know Biofutura, for example: a manufacturer that produces packaging, plates and cutlery entirely from sugar cane starch or palm leaf. And we looked at several cosmetics manufacturers who design their packaging stylishly in wood or cork. Incidentally, wood has an antibacterial effect and is therefore a good material for hygiene products.

Here they are, our chosen and certified FLUSTIX PLASTIC-FREE STARS:

#1 – Pure shea butter from balmyou

Balmyou is a natural cosmetics manufacturer that puts its complete trust in nature for its shea butter. Many manufacturers do write words such as “natural” on their products – but in reality the body lotions, lipsticks and shampoos turn out to be real chemical cocktails. Not so with balmyou, the body and face care balm, which has now also been independently and credibly tested by flustix.

This wonderful product from the Mannheim company Balmyou is free from microplastics and thus meets the flustix standards. Balmyou has also gone to great lengths to create packaging that is as sustainable as possible: we think the wooden lid with the glass jar is particularly well done. The balm makes the other bathroom products look pretty dated! And right now, as temperatures fall again, the rich shea butter is exactly the right thing to protect the skin and let it glow.

Balmyou has qualified for the flustix free-from-microplastics seal and is, all in all, a thoroughly trustworthy product. Balmyou – we are fans!

#2 – Thali Premium Palm Leaf Tableware from Biofutura

Does not look spectacular? But it is! The Thali Premium Palm Leaf is a plate made from palm leaves. What many people do not know: many other palm leaf and bamboo products are finished with an additional plastic layer, which unfortunately makes them just as environmentally unfriendly from an ecological point of view as pure plastic. Film and liquid coatings are fundamentally a problem in packaging and in single-use plastic, because using them also rules out material reuse, in other words recycling.

Biofutura has qualified for the flustix product seal and is the perfect alternative to the plastic party plate. What is more, the Dutch company goes a step further with its cutlery, glasses and plates made from renewable sugar cane, and with numerous plastic alternatives increases the pressure on industry to finally turn its back on the material. Biofutura is leading by example – it can be done without plastic!

On our website, Push Panda, the blog and all our social media channels we keep you up to date at all times. Follow us and get to know the plastic-free products in independent testing by flustix!