I ordered a pair of shoes online
I got it after 13 days, and I am doing just fine
A few clicks and the order is on its way!
A few more clicks and we can return or replace it.
This coupled with the assurance to get the products the next day takes convenience to new heights.
But do we need everything the next day?
Does a pen need to be wrapped in a shoebox filled with packaging paper?
Digital sales increased by 71% and 55% in Q2 & Q3 of 2020 respectively- thanks to the pandemic.
241 million tons of shipping cartons, cardboard mailers, void-fill wrappers, and paper-based packaging is created every year from 3 billion trees.
When it comes to plastic packaging, only 14% of it is recycled.
Thinking what happens to the rest of it? Well, they end up in landfills, incinerators or our oceans.
Let’s see how these 3 startups are solving the packaging woes in different industries⬇️
Online sales have evolved, packaging hasn’t…Whenever I throw away a cardboard box in the recycling bin, I think about where it would end up eventually. With all those tapes, packaging and tracking labels, even if it manages to reach the recycling center, would it be recycled? About 1/3rd of the world’s trash comes from packaging. The volume of the packaging material used just by the e-commerce sector was 9.4 million tons in 2019. And it is expected to become 4 times by 2025- 41.3 million tons. Most of this packaging, if you haven’t guessed it by now, ends up in a landfill.
Reuse, not recycle…A Norwegian startup is building reusable packaging that can be recirculated up to 500 times before being recycled. Packoorang uses recycled bottles and off-cuts from clothing factories to manufacture their reusable boxes. Their CO2 emission for production is the same as for the single-use boxes. But as they can be reused, they offer up to a 430% reduction in CO2 vs single-use solutions.
Brands working with Packoorang simply get the reusable boxes from them and ship the products to the customers in these boxes.
After receiving the products, customers can return the boxes to their nearest collection point, from where they are sent back to Packoorang.
Packoorang then cleans and sanitizes them and sends them back to the brands.
There’s more to it…Their innovative tracking and return system alerts them when they need to collect the boxes from the return points. They use blockchain to identify how many of their boxes are in circulation. Packoorang also eliminates the need for packaging robots and pallet wrapping machines in the factory- bringing down the cost, resources and emissions. They also run a take-back programme for recycling the bags at the end of life.
Really?… As a child in India, I always heard these stories of waste segregation from people who had been to the west. They used to talk about how segmented and well managed is the waste collection process in western countries. But when I saw it myself for the first time, I realized how broken it is. No one really goes through your waste to check if you have segregated it properly. Although I wanted to live sustainably, I never knew where to put my dead batteries, old clothes and shoes. And I had no incentive to research about that.
We got you…Seattle-based Ridwell is solving this exact problem- making it easier for people to live sustainably by collecting the hard to recycle products from them. Through a monthly subscription program, Ridwell collects 4 types of garbage from the subscribers- thin plastics like newspaper and produce bags, bubble wrap, air pillows and plastic envelopes; clothes, shoes and textiles; small batteries; and lightbulbs. They then try to divert as much of the waste as possible to reuse or upcycling facilities and sends only the appropriate ones to the recycling facility.
Ridwell subscribers use labelled cotton bags to toss out old batteries, light bulbs, clothing and shoes, and plastic film.
They place it in a white metal box outside the door and every 2 weeks, Ridwell trucks pick them up and replace them with empty ones.
Customers can dispose of Styrofoam peanuts and other products outside these 4 categories for an extra fee.
We’ll do it all…They have partnered up with local organizations to donate materials that can be reused or upcycled. For instance, their plastic film is donated to Trex, a deck-building material. They also do specialty pickups- picking up one particular type of garbage from multiple homes. In the past, they have collected art supplies, electronics, unused diapers, latex paint and wine bottle corks.
Is there a better way?… While BYO(bring your own) container to a restaurant is a sustainable option, it’s not a convenient one. Neither for the restaurant nor for the customer. As a customer, you can’t plan every time you want to have a takeaway. Carrying your own containers is not the most pleasant experience. It disrupts restaurant operations as well. Getting different sizes and shapes of the containers breaks their standardization chain. And these containers could also bring in contaminants to their kitchen.
Someone has found a solution…Singapore-based barePack is solving these problems and helping consumers and restaurants replace single-use plastic with reusable containers. The company has partnered up with major food delivery apps like GrabFood, Deliveroo and FoodPanda to get the food delivered in reusable silicone FlexBox and stainless steel KindCup. Customers can also get their food in barePack containers while picking up their orders at a partner restaurant.
After using, customers can return the boxes to any of the participating restaurants within the startup’s city-wide network.
They can also ask for a home-collection service on barePack’s mobile app if they have more than 5 containers.
Before putting them into reuse, the containers are professionally cleaned, sanitized and reused.
Sustainable and convenient…barePack containers have a reuse life expectancy of 500 applications. They don’t have any penalty for members who don’t return the containers as it discourages people from trying their service. The app is free to download and customers can become a member by purchasing a monthly (S$5/month) or an annual (S$3/month) plan, which is a fraction of what we spend on our food orders.
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