Steps Towards Tackling Waste

Welcome to #TRVSTLOVES. We curate news, ideas, and inspiration from across the world that demonstrate how real action can accomplish a positive social impact. This time we’re taking a look at recent news around waste initiatives and startups looking to tackle the problem.

Cities are crucial when it comes to tackling food waste

Just recently a study by the CMCC Foundation showed how crucial cities are when it comes to tackling food waste. With one-third of food wasted or lost along the supply chain, it’s thought that cities need to step up and adopt urban food waste policies to help tackle the issue. One of the key problems though is the lack of data. Many cities aren’t aware of the sheer scale of the problem, so a good place to start would be to use functional tools to identify the level of waste being generated. Better alignment and increased awareness to the SDG’s will also be an important part of the process.

Apple scraps power adaptors and earphones

If you’re an Apple device user it’s likely you have a house littered with white power adapters and earphones. To address this, Apple has been praised for removing earpods and chargers from the new iPhone 12, which is the right move -  it’s estimated that there are over 700 million pairs of earphones and approx 2 billion Apple power adapters in circulation. Without these additions, packaging will be smaller which also yields less waste, although there is pressure on Apple to reduce their packaging further. It’s a positive development, but we’d also like to see a new approach to the manufacturing of mobile phones, where we aren’t encouraged to “upgrade” to a new device every year.

Rethink, redesign and reimagine

Great thought piece about how business leaders can rethink, redesign and reimagine recycling. Rethinking and revaluing our attitudes towards what we would typically throw away is really important. Take Facebook marketplace for instance - it's a little like eBay but much more locally connected. It’s full of items that might have otherwise ended up in landfill, but are now being passed on and reused instead. One (wo)man’s trash is another (wo)man’s treasure as they say. From a business point of view, it can come down to educating staff and raising awareness via training programs to change mindsets around how they can be part of a sustainable organization.

The Box is here to shake things up

One of the most frustrating things about ordering something from the internet can be the huge amount of packaging it arrives in, even if it’s something small. The volumes of unnecessary waste can be astounding. Clearly, startup business Living Packets think so too. They’ve come up with a new concept known as The Box, which looks to revolutionize the way in which we send and receive packages. More of a service than a product, it supports a truly circular economy, with plenty of features including an automatic holding mechanism, self-locking systems, and digital address display. We like a lot!

French foodtech startup received €1.8m funding

Finishing off with French foodtech startup Ma Bonne Etoile who has secured €1.8 million to launch new zerowaste reusable products. Their flagship product is ‘SQUIZ’, food pouches which can be reused again and again, in fact, SQUIZ has prevented over 50 tons of non-recyclable consumer waste from being created. The thing we love about Squiz is that a lot of thought has gone into the design to make them appeal to consumers, and they encourage other good practices too, like eating homemade meals. The additional funds will go towards developing more products, so we look forward to seeing what they come up with next.