The Modern Milkman

The grey container filled with detergent that stands atop my washing machine has a long story behind it.

In a way, it started back in 2017, when a goose-beaked whale washed up in the bay of Sotra in Hordaland, on the west coast of Norway. The local emergency services tried to lead it back into deep waters but failed. When the whale’s condition deteriorated further, it was euthanised by the authorities. The story, however, did not end there. The whale was emaciated and when scientists performed an autopsy they found more than 30 plastic bags, including food packaging and sweet wrappers, inside its stomach. The large amount of plastics had created a plug, blocking its digestive tract. On some of these bags the branding was still visible, and the waste could be traced back to Norway, Sweden and the UK. The “Plastic Whale” quickly became world news, and triggered action. For Orkla, the leading Nordic conglomerate of consumer goods, it became the starting point for an entirely new company.

A display of cleaning products in the Form Us With Love studio (image courtesy of Form Us With Love).

På(fyll), which launched as a beta-version with 100 households in Norway during 2022, is a circular refill service for Orkla’s household products, aimed at helping consumers reduce plastic waste. This is no small task: every year, over 26m tonnes of plastic waste are produced within the EU, 70 per cent of which is sent to landfill. According to På(fyll), this leads to at least one garbage truck’s worth of plastic waste being dumped into the ocean for every minute of every day. “Even if everyone was [already] aware of plastic waste, the incident with the whale was very visual,” says Karin Blomberg, design manager at Swedish studio Form Us With Love (FUWL), which was commissioned to design a reusable plastic container that På(fyll)’s refill system could be built around. “The whale was one of many incidents, but it was a triggering factor for Orkla, which realised that it had a very significant responsibility.” So, how is a company that sells plastic containers aiming to change an entire industry by using more plastic containers? Because behind these containers is an entirely new system built on a very old one – the milkman.

Instead of milk, På(fyll) customers order shampoo, soap, detergents or cleaning products from brands such as Zalo, Lano, Omo and Klar via a QR code, and then leave their empty containers on their doorsteps for a pickup in the same box they arrived in. The reusable containers are then reconditioned, refilled, and sent back into circulation. This way, the containers can be used for at least ten different life cycles, or an average of three to five years, explains Rayson Ho, På(fyll)’s CEO. “That’s something that we’re testing, but we’re pretty sure it can last longer than that,” he tells me when we speak over Zoom. “So the durability of the container is, of course, critical.”

The På(fyll) container on my washing machine has taken some getting used to. When I want laundry detergent, I now have to handle a big, flat, 2-litre container, as opposed to a bottle with a handle. It’s a change that makes the pouring movement slightly different. The first time around, for instance, I poured out too much detergent. The second time, I adapted to its weight and shape in my hands. I turned it around to get a different angle, and it worked better. FUWL and På(fyll) are currently working on a dispenser that promises to make things easier, but at present it’s still a learning curve. What I did like immediately, however, is the low-key design: no big logos or unnecessary bulk anywhere in sight.

These containers don’t have to scream for my attention. At my local supermarket, the shelf with laundry detergents is packed with messages. The bigger the packaging, the better: “Mega pack”, “New generation technology” and “Scents of morning sun” are just some of the slogans that hit me. When it comes to my På(fyll) container at home, the message is completely different. The sleek design is visually pleasing, with branding restricted to a discrete sticker showing the product it contains. It is, first and foremost, designed
to be functional. FUWL has had to strike a balance between promoting the Orkla brands involved and, at the same time, establishing På(fyll)’s own brand identity – leaving brand stickers out completely, for example, meant confusion for users during the Norwegian pilot. “We also had to consider how much these brands needed to be visible for it to be worth it for them,” Blomberg explains. “Not being part of this journey could potentially close a new channel for these brands.”

“We’re talking about the least interesting products that people need to buy, but they have to buy anyway.”

— Rayson Ho

According to Ho, the biggest advantage of På(fyll) compared to other companies trying to sell sustainability is that it doesn’t require the consumer to fall in love with a new brand, or figure out how new products will fit into their lives. “We’re talking about the least interesting products that people need to buy, but they have to buy anyway,” he says. “You’re buying the things that you already know and love; just the container is different to what you’re used to.” With Orkla as one of its investors, På(fyll) has access to its entire portfolio of goods within its Home and Personal Care subsidiary. When it wants to expand and sell more things, På(fyll) already has access. “Our value proposition to existing brands is that any home or personal care good can now be consumed without plastic waste,” Ho explains.

A central question for På(fyll)’s model, however, is how it will persuade consumers to go through a more difficult, or convoluted, process to buy household cleaners – products they’re unlikely to be naturally interested in. To combat this, the company has worked with digital design studio Bakken & Bæck and business strategy company Æra to make På(fyll) as pain-free a process as possible. Instead of an app, for instance, the platform is built around QR codes, with trials suggesting that the former would be unnecessary given that the average frequency of purchasing refills would be every two to three months. Similarly, there is no subscription model; people simply order new products when they are about to run out. Elsewhere, På(fyll) has optimised delivery by collaborating with Heltjem, a company which delivers packages, newspapers and magazines overnight in Norway. Since this company already has access to addresses and doorsteps, people can receive their På(fyll) containers seamlessly in the morning. “This means people don’t need to sit at home and wait for a tracking number or wait for the delivery to be received,” Ho says. “We have really taken a lot of care to make sure that if somebody has to do something more difficult, let’s make it the least difficult as possible to buy home goods. As you can see, our idea was basically a modernised milkman model.”

Originally, I had been due to take part in På(fyll)’s second pilot scheme, which was scheduled to take place in Stockholm in October 2023. “A circular service like this requires a lot of awareness building, a lot of education is needed just to get to the level of consumption,” Ho tells me. The Stockholm pilot, he suggests, represents the next test for På(fyll) given that the company believes it represents “a more mature market [than Norway] in terms of the familiarity and the legislation when it comes to home deliveries,” as well as being a country where “market confidence in shopping online is much higher in terms of penetration rate”. These things are hard to evaluate definitively, but the pandemic has definitely changed people’s behaviour in Sweden, including my own. The Swedish e-commerce food company Mathem, for instance, doubled its production during these years; although I love shopping in-store, I was a regular customer. I may have since returned to my old routines, but I would still consider a service like this.

Despite Stockholm seemingly being primed, however, På(fyll) is a complex system to set up. Every step needs to be in place in order for it to work, from securing existing delivery and pickup infrastructure that the system can be designed around, to the three further external vendors required by the model: a warehouse, where stock that’s ready to be distributed sits, and where empty containers can be received; a company called OK Service that helps to recondition the containers; and another, Paragon Nordic, that refills them so they’re ready for circulation. Just as I began writing this piece, the decision was taken to postpone the Stockholm trial until the beginning of next year – a delay that should make clear the vastness of the whole system underlining the project.

På(fyll)’s container and nozzle design (image courtesy of Form Us With Love).

Hence the focus on laundry detergent. If you can’t trial the entire system, trying the vessels it’s built upon is the next best thing – particularly given that these designs sit at the core of the whole project. Alongside my larger detergent container, I’ve been using a smaller container (900ml) from which I refilled an old soap dispenser and then stacked away in my bathroom cupboard. By the end of this year, consumers will also be able to purchase dedicated dispensers for På(fyll)’s product groups, including hand soap, kitchen spray dishwasher detergent, shower gel, and laundry detergent. Designed by FUWL, these dispensers will all use the same base unit – only the head will change to suit the different products.

To get its designs right, FUWL spent a lot of time researching containers such as jerrycans, stackable objects like bricks, and user-friendly designs including book spines. “We looked at how people read titles and information on book spines to quickly get an understanding of the content – and how they are sorted in bookshelves,” Blomberg says. “Whether you are a single person in the city or a big family living in the countryside, it made us realise that no two homes are the same. Some people want to fit the containers into shelves and some prefer to put them away in drawers.” The fact that the containers are directly sent to consumers’ homes meant that the brief which FUWL received was unusual from the start – the project was not about aesthetics, but instead focused on ensuring that the containers were “easy to store, easy to pour and easy to grip”.

“To get its designs right, FUWL spent a lot of time researching containers such as jerrycans, stackable objects like bricks, and user-friendly designs including book spines.”

The resultant design is low key, and the focus has been on details that many users may not notice at first: a slightly funnel-shaped bottle to make the liquid flow; a tulip-shaped opening for pouring with minimal spillage; an absence of pockets that would collect dust, allowing for ease of wiping. The diameter of the neck makes it easier to insert fully into a dispenser, allowing the container’s shoulders to rest on the edge of the dispenser while refilling. FUWL’s design also considers grip strength and ease of use for all ages, while still allowing for easy stacking at home. Most importantly, it is intuitive. “Hopefully, the users will think, ‘Someone really had a think about this,’” Blomberg tells me.

For FUWL, which has previously designed Forgo Handwash – a refillable, powder-to-liquid hand soap[1] – the challenge for På(fyll) was to create a durable and versatile container that could hold various brands’ products, including liquids of different viscosities. The container had to be designed so as not to absorb or release chemicals, and to be easily cleaned and refilled again and again. Complex surfaces that make cleaning difficult had to be avoided; the edge of the container, which makes it easier to grip externally, needed to be balanced against avoiding overly dramatic internal curves. There was also an aspect of material choice: FUWL’s team had to think about what types of liquids the container could hold without absorbing colour or scent. One important consideration was creating a form that would allow for different methods of storage, as well as being as neat as possible for transportation. In the process, the studio tested out different materials, both soft and hard ones – and asked several questions. What degree of recycled material can be used? How does it affect the durability of the bottle? How many cycles can it live through before it needs to be recycled and turned into a new one? “There is so much more to the container than the container itself,” Blomberg says, highlighting how the team worked to adapt their design to fit behaviours and infrastructures already in place. The final format – a high-density polyethylene rectangle – makes it easy to refill and clean, easy to ship and return for both users and transport services, and easy to store at home. “We knew we had to come up with a hardware that would support the circular service,” Blomberg summarises.

“We throw away so many household containers, so much material, and why wouldn’t we - there is no love behind them, so why should I love them in return?”

Its container, På(fyll) believes, is one of the key tools to connect with people. “When we’re conceptualising this as a service, it’s easy to want to minimise the value of the container or its design because the service is the thing that we want people to love and latch onto,” Ho tells me. “But the container is the asset, the item that customers spend the most time with us on. It is the thing that they see the most often. It is the thing that they touch and have that tactile feeling [with].”

For me, På(fyll) has been a positive experience. I like having containers at home that I treasure instead of loathe, which is a first when it comes to personal care products. We throw away so many household containers, so much material, and why wouldn’t we – there is no love behind them, so why should I love them in return? It’s nice knowing that På(fyll)’s containers have been carefully designed with the end user in mind. I will definitely consider becoming a regular customer. I would, however, like to see as much thought go into the service’s products, as has clearly gone into the containers themselves. The laundry detergent I used had too much perfume in it and no sustainable promises in itself – something I found a little disappointing, even if there are alternatives and new brands on the way, including green soap from Grumme. But, funnily enough, the brands that stand out on a supermarket shelf are reduced to nothing when placed in an (almost) brandless container – something which should give På(fyll) more encouragement to focus on sustainable products. Even if I do understand Ho’s argument that one of På(fyll)’s advantages is that people don’t have to change their existing buying behaviours, mine possibly look a little different to many of the people he refers to. I’m a regular consumer of private labels and own-brand products, for instance, and actually prefer these to many of the big brands. In Sweden, many of these products have themselves transformed into brands in their own right (think Garant or Änglamark), often without the annoying branding of their competitors. To me, På(fyll) has a lot of those same traits and, given that it is backed by a conglomerate, it would have been refreshing to push it as a standalone label. Big brands need a new system, but is that enough? I’m not sure.

Nevertheless, I hope for a bright future. If Orkla manages to set new standards, others may well follow suit – especially consumers. Hopefully, it will lead to better choices and opportunities for brands to focus on things other than big and bold messages that stand out on the shelf. Imagine if sustainable contents could outshine their containers altogether? Plastic waste might, in those circumstances, start to become a thing of the past. And as for the Plastic Whale, what remained of its body after its autopsy was frozen such that it can eventually be displayed at the University of Bergen Museum. The whale’s legacy lives on in other ways too, not least in the form of the Plastic Whale Heritage, a group of local and global organisations that collaborate to combat marine littering. As Kenneth Bruvik, a board member of this organisation, has said: “It has caused a big revolution and it will never stop.” Hopefully På(fyll) will be able to ride its wave in Norway, Sweden and beyond.

[1] See ‘A Radical Reduction’ in Disegno #23.

Words Jonna Dagliden Hunt

This article was originally published in Design Reviewed #3. To buy the issue, or subscribe to the journal, please visit the online shop.

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