“Ohne” (without) Munich’s first supermarket without packaging opened this Saturday (February 20) at the Schellingstr. 42. The zero waste shop is the first of its kind in Munich. Some 350, mostly food products, are offered and sold without packaging at the store, even paper bags are only used if there’s no way around it. Almost all food sold at “Ohne” has been produced organically and comes from the region.

At “Ohne” even dish soap is sold on tap and you can fill it into containers. Milk, yoghurt and beer is sold in bottles with refundable deposit. The owners of the supermarket are Hannah Sartin (31), her husband Carlo Krauß (33) and Christine Traub (30). The trio were inspired for the shop by the book “Zero Waste Home” by US author Bea Johnson. They have so far invested 48,000 euros in their idea. Most of the money was crowd funded. Prices at “Ohne” are above the prices at regular supermarkets, but they are average priced compared to other bio-stores in Munich.

Below is how they introduce themselves on their homepage at ohne-laden.de:

We are Hannah and Carlo. We live and love the Zero Waste Lifestyle and are very much looking forward to launching Munich’s first unpackaged shopping alternative for you. With the support of our Crowd via www.startnext.com we started successful our business last year. A while ago Chrissi joined our team and we are aiming at opening OHNE der verpackungsfreie Supermarkt for you beginning this year.