The Solid Bar - A Zero Waste Scheme for Hospitality
The Solid Bar Company is based in Oxfordshire, UK. They produce Sustainable, plastic-free hair care and body care for the hospitality and travel industry. The multi-award-winning product range includes salon shampoo bars, conditioner bars, face cleansing bars, magnesium, and probiotic deodorants, Castile soap bars, pet bars, and a range of healing balms using their own grown herbs. These luxury products are anhydrous (which means completely waterless) making them highly concentrated, compact, and easy to use, store and travel with. Sheer luxury without compromise!
Rebecca Bennett, CEO and Founder was sailing across the Atlantic on a 36ft boat with her husband, when they came up with the idea for The Solid Bar Company.
“We wanted stuff that was not just compact and small and sustainable, but really actually does what it says on the tin, so we started with repellents. We spent two years getting bitten to get those right!”.
The Solid Bar Company has invented a brilliant way to support a hotel's sustainability strategy by rolling out a scheme, which is truly zero waste. When they first started curating their products, they were looking at the travel market, it made natural sense to then make products for the hospitality industry. The industry is under enormous pressure to have a zero waste program and laws are changing in many countries to increase the pressure to reduce and even ban plastics.
“At first catering for hotels seemed tricky because to make bars small enough to suit just one or two uses would not be user friendly, especially for adults with larger hands - it would also generate lots of waste. The idea was suggested for a bar with a hole in the middle - less weight and therefore less expensive”.
This allows The Solid Bar Company to compete with plastic bottle products. The 3 in 1 bar replaces the shampoo, the conditioner and the body wash – three different products and therefore the price point is good.
Still, there was the problem of waste. Rebecca realised there was an opportunity to re-melt bars and repurpose them. She set out on the task of finding a suitable lab to batch test and also certify the re-melted bars to prove they are clean and free from any bacteria or yeast. That's now exactly the process that the bars from hotels in the UK go through. They are certified that they are perfectly safe each time. It's a scheme that The Solid Bar Company plan to set up in other countries around the world. They already have plans to set it up in the USA, Ireland and France. They are able to collect up the left over bars from hotel bathrooms, re-melt and repurpose them in a new box for around 30% cheaper than the original product. Plus, the science shows that it's very hygienic.
“I don't know anyone else in the world that's actually doing what we're doing”.
The Solid Bar Company are extremely proud of their 3 in 1 bar and advertise it as a salon experience. They have already won seven industry awards. Their shampoo and conditioner bars beat 350 liquid shampoos and conditioners in a competition, coming out on top ahead of Charles Worthington. They have also been endorsed by Prince Albert of Monaco foundation
“I just want things to be really the best for people but also not out of their price range”.
The 'Gold’ award-winning 3-in-1 bars (shampoo/conditioner/soap) contain a blend of highly concentrated quality ingredients to both clean and condition in one wash, replacing three separate bathroom amenities!
The 3-in-1 bar's key features are:
Gentle, natural, 100% vegan, fully biodegradable foaming and conditioning ingredients
Anti-static and heat protectant ingredients
100% plastic free packaging
No synthetic fragrance, no palm oil, no water dilution
Made in the UK
The added preservative is so stable and effective it enables the bar to be used dozens of times and remain free from any yeast or bacteria development. All of the products are also cruelty free and vegan and the packaging is recyclable or compostable.
To find out more about this scheme and how it could support your hotel's Waste Management strategy Contact Us to discuss.
