🌱 Boosting Recycling Rates: 3 ways to encourage consumers, inspired by smol.
Featuring smol, Madewell, Finisterre, Boots and more...
Happy Monday!
On Friday it’s Global Recycling Day, so this week we’re covering:
3 ways to encourage your consumers to recycle your products on Global Recycling Day.
smol: Betting on good communication and clever design to boost recycling rates.
In case you missed it: Behind the B Corp: A B Leader’s tips for getting started and securing a solid score, by Laura Matz, Lead B Corp Consultant at Greenheart Consulting.
> Good News Last Week
🎯Smaller brands hitting the bullseye, ⭐️ Larger brands taking important steps, ⚡️Relevant industry news, research and/or announcements.
🎯 Canned Wine Co announced their partnership with not-for-profit recycling programme Every Can Counts, supporting their mutual mission to see a 100% drink can recycling rate.
🎯 COOK Trading Ltd announced they're joining Business Declares, a community of companies taking action to protect the planet.
🎯 Returnity Innovations has raised $3.1 million. Returnity provides reusable packaging solutions to companies and organizations, helping them make their distribution more circular.
⭐️ Halfords announced they're starting to sell second hand bikes. They estimate there are 7 million unused bikes in sheds and garages, and will offer customers up to £250 for their unwanted bikes.
⭐️ NotCo has partnered with The Kraft Heinz Company, aiming to reimagine global food production for a more sustainable future.
⭐️ Google announced two new pledges to reduce food loss and waste, aiming to cut food waste in half by 2025 for every Googler and send zero food waste to landfill.
⚡️ Blue Recovery Leaders Group, comprised of business leaders from across industries, has backed a new initiative to help expand and restore the UK's wetlands - committing to protect 100,000 acres. The scheme is backed by HRH Prince of Wales.
⚡️ International Platform for Insetting (IPI) launched a new guide to help corporates work with suppliers to curb their emissions. The IPI was founded in 2013 by PUR Projet and Adaptogether. The guide shares insights and provides recommendations for sustainability professionals. It can be found here.
> Click on each link to read more.
> Quick Take
3 ways to encourage your consumers to recycle your products on Global Recycling Day.
The average person generates 0.74 kg of waste per day, with this number rising to as high as 4.5 kg in more economically developed countries. As consumption rises, so has the desire to recycle that waste. Consumer recycling programs often give the impression that achieving circularity is a simple case of recycling, re-using or re-purposing a brand’s products - and that this responsibility belongs to the consumer. However, there are often misconceptions about this cycle. Why? Not all recyclable products are created equally, and not all consumers understand the difference anyway.
Waste management methods vary between councils and countries, and most brands will need to balance providing location-specific advice that increases the chance of recycling with their national communication strategies and brand packaging. Whilst the End of Life of a product often feels out of a brand’s responsibility, ultimately it’s a huge part of their product’s life cycle.
Today, on Global Recycling Day, we’re focusing on 3 ways brands can influence their consumers to correctly recycle their products:
Educate your consumers: In particular, plastics are often mismanaged when it comes to recycling. Currently, less than 10% of plastic produced is recycled. The main difficulties of plastics recycling come down to cost and feasibility. Many plastics can be reborn into everything from carpet to furniture - see Interface Carpets as an example. However, difficulty ensuring closed recycling loops means plastic is rarely recycled infinitely. It goes without saying that, where possible, brands should avoid single-use plastics. Metals, paper, or glass are interesting alternatives, as they’re more commonly recycled and repurposed by consumers. Where plastic is used, clear education of consumers is not only essential but also an opportunity. How many actually know what PET stands for? How can you engage with them about the end of life of their products via instructive labelling? We love Pip & Nut’s switch to glass jars.
Offer recycling schemes: Many brands now offer incentives to recycle old products, particularly in the Fashion & Apparel industry. Madewell’s denim recycling program offers consumers $20 towards a new pair of jeans when they donate an old pair, converting the denim into housing insulation. Finisterre has partnered with ReSkinned to offer their Lived & Loved Initiative. Similarly, for cosmetics, Boots incentivises recycling empty beauty and wellness products by giving rewards points to consumers. Innovative systems like Re are also aiming for greater circularity of products - with brands like Elemis and Original Source taking part.
Mix up your messaging: Connecting with your consumer is a challenge for any brand, but communicating the impact of your products can be a key tool. Professor Kate White at the University of British Columbia showed study participants two kinds of messages: a ‘loss-framed message’ explaining the negative consequences of not recycling, or a ‘gain-framed message’ showing the positive impact of recycling. Researchers found that loss-framed messages worked best to motivate consumers at the moment, but gain-framed messages had a long-term impact on recycling motivations. Brands should consider which approach is most suitable for their products and communication strategies.
Interested? Read more about waste and recycling at the World Bank, the inefficiencies of plastic at the UN Environmental Programme, the overall impact of household waste at the US Environmental Protection Agency, and composting at the Natural Resource Defense Council.
> Brand Spotlight
smol: Betting on good communication and clever design to boost recycling rates.
The UK reportedly generates 2.3 million tonnes of plastic packaging waste each year - with only 35% being recycled. Since their launch in 2018, smol customers have reportedly saved over 666 tonnes of plastic by switching to smol - that’s 36 million plastic bottles! Their tactics? Bold communication, clever product and packaging design, and plenty of options for their customers. Let’s take the plunge.
Bold Communication: The Sussex based company invested in a Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) for their dishwasher tablets and laundry capsules. Their findings? 70% of carbon emissions are generated in their customers' homes - by heating the water and running the washing machine. Whilst this lies outside of their immediate operations, smol know that to be a truly responsible brand they need to take responsibility for the Consumer Use and End of Life phases of their products’ lives. So, they decided to focus on education. smol’s #washwell campaign, launched in April 2021, encourages ‘smart washing’ amongst their consumers. smol discovered that 17% of people run their dishwasher when it isn’t full at least once every week, so #washwell is encouraging users to scrap any half loads of laundry and only run the dishwasher when it is full. The brand knows that engaging their customers is an investment with high returns - both in customer loyalty and in a reduced product footprint for a brand obsessed with being planet positive.
Clever product and packaging design: smol claims to have designed the world’s first 100% plastic free packaging for dishwasher tablets and laundry capsules. It’s fully recyclable, and made with FSC certified materials. They don’t stop there - smol bottles are also fully recyclable, allowing easy disposal by their customers.
Plenty of options for their consumers: Relying on behaviour change or recycling tendencies alone can be risky. So, smol also offer a refill and reuse service for their conditioner bottles. This caters to the variety of preferences their consumers will have around engaging in their product’s end destination. It also has a positive cumulative effect - after all, pairing education with options reduces the risk of poor disposal and negative environmental impact.
The results? According to smol, if every UK home didn’t do one 40˚C load of laundry each month, the UK could collectively save around 120,000 tonnes of carbon emissions each year. On top of that, eLoop found that switching to smol surface sprays reduces carbon emissions by 91%. Sounds like smol changes, in a variety of ways, really can make a pretty big difference - especially when both the brand and the consumer are engaged together.
Support smol via their shop:
> In case you missed it
Behind the B Corp: A B Leader’s tips for getting started and securing a solid score.
by Laura Matz, Lead B Corp Consultant at Greenheart Consulting.
> Follow up with…
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