The waste is piling up. And people are taking notice. Around the world, consumers are increasingly embracing a ‘buy less, use it more and for longer’ attitude. This creates real opportunities for brands to engage with consumers in creating less waste.
The conversation, up until now, has mostly centred around plastic as the problem - and recycling as the solution. However, mass production of goods has created what scientists estimate to be 8.3 billion tonnes of plastic – of which 90% never actually gets recycled.
As a result, consumers are now exploring new ways of living and spending beyond simply buying ‘green’ or ‘recyclable’ products. They are changing behaviours and beginning to shun single use altogether. According to Kantar, 70% already plan to purchase less plastic.
Put simply, people want to know that what they’re buying is not going to add to the pile of waste. That it can be reused, repaired, refilled - or at the very least recycled. That the products they choose are made with a circular future in mind. And that the brands they choose are taking a vested interest in being part of the solution.
This is the rise of the post-waste lifestyle. A shifting cultural context which offers opportunities for brands to benefit from more sustainable approaches and extend connections with consumers post-purchase.
Here are our insights into how brands can – and are – making the most of this opportunity.
Beyond recyclable
Recycling is important. There’s no denying that. But as the numbers show us, it’s not enough on its own or (in its current form). More needs to be done to solve the problem and to satisfy consumer sentiment around plastic waste.
A 2019 study found that consumers were far more likely to recycle a product if they knew what would happen to it. This adds an inherent value to products made from recycled plastics, such as Parley Ocean Plastic, an innovative material made from waste collected in oceans and on beaches, which has become a key upcycled material after a successful partnership with Adidas.
Some brands are taking responsibility for recycling themselves, rather than relying on what many consider ‘broken’ or ineffectual third party or government recycling systems. Apple, for instance, is incorporating recyclability into its own supply chain. They have developed their own recycling robots, which can disassemble and recycle up to 1.2m used iPhones per year.
Long live the life cycle
In pursuit of reducing the waste created by the disposability of products, many brands are committing to after-care for products, making it super easy to keep products maintained, repaired or refilled. Rather than relying on repeat purchase of the same product, brands are extending the life of what they already do. The result is also stronger – and longer – brand affinity.
For example, emerging brands are building lifetime customer value via subscription services and auto-replenishment, and major retail chains are getting involved with reusable shopping bags and food waste prevention programmes.
Proving the growing power of the replenishment business, household essentials of all kinds can now be returned and refilled as regularly as needed. Loop, a start-up from the founder of TerraCycle, will bring together some of the world’s biggest consumer brands on a waste-free platform designed to help cut plastics from the supply chain. With partners including Procter & Gamble, Nestlé and Unilever, the Loop system will provide reusable containers for everything from ice cream to mouthwash, which then get shipped back and refilled via UPS.
New Zealand business Resolv takes an innovative approach to cleaning, doing away with many of the assumed yet unnecessary elements of traditional cleaning products. Over 90% of a typical bottle of cleaning product is water, and plastic packaging now accounts for nearly half of all plastic waste generated globally each year. So, instead of buying a new bottle every time, Resolv offers a small dissolvable tablet and a single, stylish, sustainable and reusable spray bottle.
Less buy, more borrow
Increasingly, consumers are embracing alternatives to traditional purchasing and ownership practises. Peer-to-peer lending (P2P), sharing and rental schemes are on the rise, enabling people to access and consume products in a more sustainable way.
UK-based By Rotation's free P2P fashion rental app and platform lets its 32,000 users rent designer items at a fraction of the cost and UK-US platform Fat Llama lets people rent out spare items to neighbours. In Xiamen, China, grocery store Lagom Zakka sells sustainable goods, hosts swap-shops and gives some revenue to the community. While British app OLIO, which enables users to post photos of unwanted food to share with neighbours in need, has raised $43m in funding to help food businesses around the world achieve zero food waste goals.
More positive partnerships
We’re also seeing how cross-industry initiatives and partnerships are producing inventive zero-waste products and materials. US-based Hewlett Packard (HP) and Ford are turning waste from 3D printers and teeth aligners into car parts. Scientists at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) are turning some of Singapore's 12m discarded durian fruit husks into antibacterial bandages.
Déjà is a local pet food brand that has proved the effectiveness of innovative partnerships to create circular products. They partnered with Foodstuffs New Zealand to develop super nutritious, high quality pet treats by repurposing perfectly good human food from supermarkets.
People need proof
Consumers are an increasingly discerning bunch. We’re all less likely to simply accept a stated product claim – and that’s a good thing. But it requires brands to be much more transparent in providing proof. Nowhere is this more important than when it comes to sustainability.
As such, we’re starting to see brands employ innovative ways of sharing traceability and providing ‘proof for proof points.’ UK-based retailer Cult Beauty introduced Proof Points to its website to provide evidence for product claims. Powered by transparency tech provider Provenance and verified by an independent third party, the system uses blockchain technology to search for evidence for each claim and is intended to counter greenwashing. Mondelēz International's new North America transparency programme uses QR codes printed on-pack to enable customers to track the wheat used in its Triscuit products.
While blockchain technology can be a key tool for transparency initiatives, many consumers can find UX tech confusing, time consuming and unengaging. So, it’s important that brands use interactive design and data storytelling to make information more compelling and increase consumer uptake of these programmes.
Help is at hand
Every brand worth its salt is looking at ways to embrace more sustainable methods and outputs. But it can be hard to know where to start, what to focus on, or how to proceed. Luckily, there are a growing range of organisations and consultancies that exist to help brands assess their carbon footprint and identify opportunities to be more sustainable.
Circularity is an organisation dedicated to helping businesses activate the circular economy within their four walls - and in the world around them. Helping partners unlock new value by applying circularity to their resources, products, processes and stakeholder relationships. That means no waste; everything has a purpose and is repurposed.
More Trees is another organisation inspiring companies to be more sustainable by guiding them to really understand their carbon impact and making it easy to act and engage employees. Focusing on small and medium size organisations, More Trees enables businesses to cut emissions and design out future carbon costs, while enhancing their brand.