Let’s draw inspiration from current products and business models as well as look at their challenges. At our Plastic Hackathon on Saturday 09 February we do not want to reinvent the wheel but instead come up with innovative and disruptive business solutions.
Swipe and sip?
You can now pay for your coffee with a reusable Clever Cup thanks to Costa & Barclays. Will this fuel the reuse revolution? A contactless payment chip can be installed to any reusable container with any credit card. CupClub is working on packaging as a service too.
Healthy vending machines?
Farmer’s Fridge vending machines not only serve you fresh healthy food but they also recycle the jars for you. Once you’re done, you drop your jar back. One example of a good deposit return scheme.
From India, with love
One of the main culprits for increased circulation of single-use plastic is indeed our own need and desire for convenience. The rise in takeaway food is indicative of this. However it need not go hand-in-hand with single-use plastic. Dabbadrop, have embraced the 125-year-old Dabbawala tradition, and brought plastic-free takeaway to the United Kingdom.
Plastic as a takeaway container can work if done correctly. Go Box is the first and only reusable container service using BPA-free containers. They work with over 70 vendors across Portland with a mission to make waste-free takeout easy.
One of our challenges at the Plastic Hackathon will be to design a product, service or system that promotes “reuse/refill” and ultimately reduces the amount of plastic used in the takeaway food industry.
Take care of yourself, and the planet
We all take pride in our appearance but again this often comes at a cost to the beautiful planet we reside upon. Bite are home delivering toothpaste in refillable glass bottles as opposed to hard-to-recycle plastic.
Lush have had a return scheme for a while whereby all black pots returned are recycled and made into new ones. Loyal customers have queried if a refill model would be better than a reuse one however.
At the Plastic Hackathon, we’ll be thinking like outsiders, questioning everything and gate crashing the party of the incumbents.
The World. Wide. Web.
Amazon prime is now offering “2-hour delivery” and even grandma is ordering “party hats” on her phone. This revolutionary convenience enables us to order multiple, unnecessary products and increases returns.
Repack is one reusable packaging company trying to make a difference in the new world of instantaneous delivery we find ourselves in.
With only an estimated 9% of plastic being recycled, unsustainable packaging is another challenge we will work to overcome.
Written by: Gemma Armes
Edited by: Dhruv Boruah