Two young Hungarians came up with an extraordinary innovation just a month ago: the world’s first deodorant refill machine. While the creation of the machine itself is a great achievement for 21-year-old Gergely Zámbó and 22-year-old Andor Réti, it could also be a significant step forward in the fight against climate change. Respray can reduce the carbon footprint of deodorant use by three quarters. Just in Europe, nearly two billion deodorant cans are thrown away every year and incinerated in waste treatment plants. In our series Válasz Online is showcasing real Hungarian successes that are not the result of public money handed out for government cronies, but of talent and hard work.

Cikkünk eredetileg magyarul jelent meg, itt olvasható.

You can use the same spray can for about a year, thanks to the Respray machine, which allows you to refill your deodorant cans five times, at a much more affordable price. The machine is the result of Andor Réti and Gergely Zámbó’s ambitions, and it’s not just theoretical: you can already try it out in a Rossmann drug store in Budaörs, and soon it will be available in two other stores of the chain in Budapest. We sat down to talk to the two young inventors in the Z10 community office of the Budapest University of Technology’s incubator programme. It turns out that they were both Eötvös students in the humanities, but they were interested in environmental issues and entrepreneurship from high school.

Over basketball and a chessboard, they started talking about how to bring about systemic change by solving an environmental problem. As high school seniors, the two boys decided to spend a year separately brainstorming ideas, then in December 2019, as freshmen in college, they got together in a café and ran through the possibilities. Although they had previously thought about brewing beer, making hop tea, and even a digital solution to prepare for the Matura Exam and had different energy-related projects in mind, however they finally decided to go with Respray.