Episode 76
Incentives Used by Businesses To Reduce Waste, Junk And Promote Circular Economy
Episode Summary: In this episode, Leekei and Jenn discuss incentives used by businesses to reduce waste and integration to a circular economy
More and more businesses are offering incentives and replacement initiatives to reduce waste, maximize use and ensure integration into end-of-life recycling channels. Examples can be found in the following:
- running competition with t-shirts as a goodies option to reduce waste
- bylaw reusable cups in coffee shops in Vancouver
- deposit when buying a garment to ensure proper recycling at the end of life
- replacement of broken parts in kitchen appliances
- …etc
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Featuring Carbon Almanac Contributors Leekei Tang and Jenn Swanson
Leekei is a fashion business founder, a business coach, an international development expert and podcaster from Paris, France.
From Langley in British Columbia, Canada, Jenn is a Minister, Coach, Writer and Community Connector, helping people help themselves.
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The CarbonSessions Podcast is produced and edited by Leekei Tang, Steve Heatherington and Rob Slater.
Transcript
Hi, I'm Emma.
Speaker:I live in his colon.
Speaker:Hi, I'm Jen and I'm from Canada.
Speaker:Hi,
Speaker:Oh, I'm leaky and I live in Paris.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:I'm Rob I'm from fruit.
Speaker:Welcome to carbon site.
Speaker:A podcast with carbon conversations for every day, with everyone, from
Speaker:everywhere in the world, in our conversations, we share ideas,
Speaker:perspectives, questions, and things we can actually do to make a difference.
Speaker:So don't be shy and join our carbon sessions because it's not too late.
Speaker:Hi, I'm Jen.
Speaker:Hi, I'm leaky.
Speaker:What are we talking about today?
Speaker:Leaky?
Speaker:We are talking about incentives.
Speaker:. Incentives.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Incentives to, um, to have better behaviors, to our better behaviors.
Speaker:I like that.
Speaker:. Yeah.
Speaker:And incentives with money.
Speaker:What are we gonna start with?
Speaker:What kind of incentives?
Speaker:Well, um, okay.
Speaker:Let's start with an incentive of something that I, that worries me
Speaker:a lot because, uh, um, um, I'm kind of cpri to the whole system is that,
Speaker:you know, I am a casual runner.
Speaker:I mean, I like to think I'm a runner, but, um, I mean, yes, I do run.
Speaker:So I guess that's, I'm a runner because I run, but I'm not a very, very good runner.
Speaker:But still, I like to, you know, to take part into small competitions because I
Speaker:just find it fun because, um, it's, uh, it adds a little bit of, um, tension.
Speaker:Uh, it's exciting.
Speaker:So I do a lot of small competitions and, uh, one thing that really,
Speaker:really bothers me is that every time we go on a competition, there's
Speaker:a run of t-shirts and, um, okay.
Speaker:I can show you, actually, I'm wearing one of . Okay.
Speaker:This is the one I get from my last run.
Speaker:Um, ah, so yeah, see, it's, um, it's made of, uh, polyester most of the time.
Speaker:And as you know, polyester.
Speaker:Is, it's not very good for the environment because it's plastic based and, uh,
Speaker:it is really difficult to dispose of.
Speaker:And, um, and actually I don't need all those t-shirts.
Speaker:I mean, if you look in my drawers, I have dozens and dozens of t-shirts.
Speaker:I don't buy any new t-shirts because I've got so many, but I can't wear them all.
Speaker:I mean, I, I try to use them, but no, I can't.
Speaker:So I try to give them to people.
Speaker:But, you know, people find kind of weird to wear, um, to wear t-shirts
Speaker:where it says, oh, you, I ran this race and, and where they didn't.
Speaker:So it just love junk and I find it very, very annoying.
Speaker:But things are starting to change.
Speaker:Oh.
Speaker:So what are the, what's the change?
Speaker:What's happen?
Speaker:It's the beginning, I would say.
Speaker:Um, one thing, one pattern that I noticed in some of the competitions
Speaker:is that they give you the, or the runner, they give the opportunity to
Speaker:the runner to not get the t-shirt.
Speaker:Um, because running is a kind of minimal sport, but.
Speaker:Actually the environmental footprint is quite big when you think about, you
Speaker:know, the traveling and you think about, you know, all the plastic bottles.
Speaker:And a lot of them of the organizing companies are trying to, to have better
Speaker:behaviors, to give the possibility to runners, to, to, uh, to do things better.
Speaker:There are more and more competitions that say, okay, if you don't want to get
Speaker:the t-shirt, we offer you a discount.
Speaker:Which is great actually, because, um, I don't need a t-shirt and it's
Speaker:cheaper for them because they don't have to manufacture the t-shirts anyway.
Speaker:That's really good.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And is this happening more and more like in different places
Speaker:or, or in the circles that you've discovered are, is it catching on?
Speaker:Do.
Speaker:Yeah, I think it's catching on.
Speaker:Um, now what I see more and more is, um, if you want to just sign up for the
Speaker:race and get the medal, because it's one of the, of the pleasure of the race is
Speaker:to get the medal at the end of the run.
Speaker:So if you want to buy the t-shirt, it's, it's offered as an option and actually
Speaker:they're all the goodies that you can buy.
Speaker:But, um, but , looks good.
Speaker:So that environmental incentive in a.
Speaker:Yes, it is well with money.
Speaker:Well, and, and yeah.
Speaker:So, so do you think that was driven from, you know, runners having
Speaker:too many drawers full of T-shirts?
Speaker:Or was that driven from a money saving perspective, or both?
Speaker:I think it's both because, um, yeah, it's becoming quite expensive if you
Speaker:do all the competitions you want to.
Speaker:Of course I'm an okay runner, but not a good runner, so
Speaker:I will never have sponsors.
Speaker:So yeah, it's quite a budget, you know, if I want to do all the competitions
Speaker:I want to do in the season, if I sign up to, for all the races,
Speaker:it's becoming, uh, quite a budget.
Speaker:Right, right.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:So I wonder what other incentive things, um, are out there that.
Speaker:either a little bit of both, you know, or one or the other money or
Speaker:environment or a little bit of both.
Speaker:I think often it comes together.
Speaker:Um, I think those two objectives are quite aligned because, you know, if you
Speaker:want the stuff, there's cost to make it.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:So if you remove the cost of making it, uh, you can offer an
Speaker:incentive for, to the, to the user.
Speaker:Say, okay, you don't get this thing.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Then it will be cheaper.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I, I, uh, I live, um, in Canada and on the west coast and Vancouver
Speaker:is a, has a huge coffee culture.
Speaker:Mm.
Speaker:Um, people go everywhere with something in their.
Speaker:You don't go anywhere without your, your cup or your, you know,
Speaker:I carry a water bottle around.
Speaker:And, uh, people say it's an emotional support water bottle,
Speaker:, but emotional support coffee cups happen around here too.
Speaker:And, um, there are coffee shops on every corner.
Speaker:Uh, we have, uh, you know, Tim Hardens and Starbucks and yeah, I
Speaker:mean, you name it, there's coffee.
Speaker:and in Vancouver, they decided, um, I can't remember maybe a couple of
Speaker:years ago, to, um, start charging people an extra 25 cents if they
Speaker:don't bring their own reusable cup.
Speaker:Um, so if you show up at a coffee shop in Vancouver with nothing and buy a coffee,
Speaker:they are charging an extra 25 cents.
Speaker:And I.
Speaker:The idea was a, to incentivize people to bring their own reusable
Speaker:cup, which is excellent for the environment because the garbage cans
Speaker:are overflowing even though the cups that they serve things in are cardboard.
Speaker:Um, sometimes the cardboard gets thrown in with the, you know, the,
Speaker:the, even if it's compostable.
Speaker:And the same with the, um, the, uh, plastic cups that are made
Speaker:out of corn that are supposed to be compostable will sometimes.
Speaker:Parts of things aren't.
Speaker:Um, we don't have plastic straws anymore around here, which is great.
Speaker:It's all, uh, recyclable or compostable.
Speaker:But, um, but now there's some pushback against this charge, and I think
Speaker:it has to do with affordability.
Speaker:It's a very expensive place to live, and it also has to do with, uh,
Speaker:people who don't have access for whatever reason, to a disposable mug.
Speaker:. So that means that if you don't show up with your, your
Speaker:mug, you have to pay extra.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So in a way it's, you need to pay for the, for the mug.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Even if it's, um, a mug that you can throw away, you still have to pay it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:If you bring your own, it's less.
Speaker:And if you don't bring your own, then you pay for the one that gets thrown away.
Speaker:And I don't know if there is a.
Speaker:For what happens with that money or if that money is just going into the,
Speaker:the, the company's coffers, like I don't know where that money is going.
Speaker:If it was to be used for recycling or something, that would be good, but I
Speaker:kind of don't think that's the case.
Speaker:So I think they're arguing for getting rid of this idea.
Speaker:, right.
Speaker:Is it a legal thing or it's a, is it company policies that
Speaker:No, it's a city citywide thing.
Speaker:It's a like a city bylaw.
Speaker:Mm, yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So the city council, there's people speaking against it and there's been
Speaker:news articles about it, and I don't know if they're going to revisit
Speaker:it, um, or what they're going to do, but it took a while to get it going.
Speaker:And now it's happening.
Speaker:And now the complaint.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well, I mean, I can understand that it sounds like a good idea.
Speaker:Um, but I can understand that some people complain because it's becoming
Speaker:more expensive for people who have, um, have less access to things and
Speaker:maybe there's an initial investment.
Speaker:Might be quite expensive.
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:Yeah, those, they're quite expensive.
Speaker:Well, everything's expensive in this corner of the world.
Speaker:To give you perspective, years ago, 10 years ago, I went on a trip to New
Speaker:York and I was prepared for everything to be really, really expensive, and I
Speaker:was really, really surprised that it.
Speaker:Yes, . I know what you mean.
Speaker:You know, Shannon's like Wellow.
Speaker:It's really not that expensive in New York and the dollar factor makes it mm-hmm.
Speaker:, uh, you know, our dollar here in Canada is terrible, so the dollar factor,
Speaker:the exchange rate makes things much more, but, you know, uh, you know,
Speaker:the prices were pretty comparable or pretty similar or even a little bit.
Speaker:Um, than, than what we were paying for for restaurant meals and
Speaker:things when, when I was there.
Speaker:And I was really surprised cuz I was prepared for it to be, you
Speaker:know, it's New York for heaven sake.
Speaker:probably really expensive.
Speaker:And I'm thinking, well, when you compare anything to Vancouver, . Oh man.
Speaker:You were telling me earlier before we turned on the recording about a clothing
Speaker:company and I'm fascinated about.
Speaker:Me about that.
Speaker:Oh, okay.
Speaker:You know that in fashion we are trying a lot of different things because fashion
Speaker:is a very polluting industry and it contributes a lot to climate change.
Speaker:I don't have the exact numbers, but it's like maybe the second or the
Speaker:third, um, highest, no, the industry, which is the second of, uh, highest
Speaker:contributor to climate change.
Speaker:And so we are working on a lot of different solutions.
Speaker:To make this industry still work because people need clothing and there are people
Speaker:that are involved in this industry and, uh, yeah, we need clothes and it brings a
Speaker:lot of joy, but we need to find solutions.
Speaker:And so one of the solution is to develop more businesses
Speaker:based on circular fashion model.
Speaker:One of the idea of solo fashion is that the, uh, the clothes can be recycled.
Speaker:. And the problem with a lot of things that can be recycled is that it's
Speaker:not because it can be recycled, that it is guilt-free and you can buy
Speaker:it and then you're done, you know, you've done your part of the work.
Speaker:Um, you actually really have to make sure that it is recycled properly.
Speaker:Otherwise, you know, it's not because something is, can be
Speaker:recycled, that it will get recycled.
Speaker:. And so that is a big problem with fashion, the textile stuff, uh, because
Speaker:a lot of pieces of clothing can be recycled, but they don't eventually
Speaker:get recycled because, um, it doesn't go through the right channel, through
Speaker:the, the right networks of recycling.
Speaker:And, um, so one of the companies that has um, you know, has really
Speaker:pushed, uh, this concept to the end is that, okay, I'm selling you
Speaker:this piece of globe, it's your.
Speaker:And, uh, you can use it for as long as you want, but I wanna make
Speaker:sure that it's properly recycled.
Speaker:So what I'm going to do is to charge you a deposit.
Speaker:So here's a piece of clothes, and once you're done with it and you
Speaker:don't want it anymore, we return it and we'll give you back the deposit.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:So what do you think of this idea That is really interesting.
Speaker:Now I'm a person.
Speaker:, I would say 95% of what I wear is from the thrift store.
Speaker:Um, and when I do buy something new, I buy from a sustainable fashion organization.
Speaker:Um, so I, and I wear my clothes forever, , so what that, so I don't know if it
Speaker:was something I really, really liked.
Speaker:I may never return it, but , sorry.
Speaker:I mean, I was wearing, I was wearing something the other day that, um, I love
Speaker:this little, it's a little velvet, dark chocolate, brown velvet little jacket.
Speaker:And I love this thing.
Speaker:And it occurred to me that it was handed down to me when my children were
Speaker:little from, uh, a young babysitter who used to spend a lot of money
Speaker:on clothes and didn't want this.
Speaker:And she brought a whole bag of clothing.
Speaker:and I found this little jacket, and this was when my kids were little and they're,
Speaker:you know, 30 and , 31 and 29 and younger.
Speaker:So, um, so this is a really old piece of clothing and it still
Speaker:looks great and I still love it.
Speaker:So for me, that might not work.
Speaker:But I can see that if it's, uh, somebody who just wears something
Speaker:for a year or two and then gives it away, then that would be a great.
Speaker:Yeah, well, it just, you know, it's something on top the.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So it's part of the price, I would think, uh, because yeah, I don't know
Speaker:if you noticed, but yeah, I mean, you've noticed you just say that you, you love
Speaker:some pieces that you've been wearing since when your kids were, were born, I
Speaker:should say that, but you know, no, no.
Speaker:Well, , but I don't know if you paid attention to it, but, um, clothes from
Speaker:three years ago last much, much, much longer than the clubs that of today.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:See, I don't, because I don't buy fast fashion except second.
Speaker:. Um, and when I buy secondhand, I look for real quality pieces.
Speaker:So, um, yeah, I, but I know that that is a big, big thing, so anything
Speaker:that helps incentivize to reuse and recycle is a good idea, I think.
Speaker:Yeah, I, I mean, I see a lot of things happening in fashion.
Speaker:They'll also, uh, like, you know, swap markets.
Speaker:Um, okay.
Speaker:To use the technical term, it's peer-to-peer.
Speaker:So instead of going to like a, a big store, you join a group of
Speaker:people and you swap your clothes.
Speaker:So that's one way.
Speaker:Um, then you maximize the use of the, of the peer of clothes because it's
Speaker:one of the pillar or circular fashion is to use it for as long as possible,
Speaker:and then also you can repurpose it and, um, make it less longer or change
Speaker:the usage of the, of the piece of.
Speaker:Yeah, no, it's good to do all of those things.
Speaker:While we were, uh, talking, I thought of another incentive, um, that I read this
Speaker:week and just, it just came to me now.
Speaker:Um, we, we bought, oh gosh, it's, it's way past warranty.
Speaker:It's gotta be pretty old now, maybe, maybe 12 or 13, 14 years old.
Speaker:Um, a high powered blender, and we use this blender every single.
Speaker:every single day, sometimes more than once.
Speaker:We love this blender so much.
Speaker:We take it with us to the cabin in the summer , because we make
Speaker:our breakfast smoothies every day.
Speaker:And the blender, uh, container has just started leaking
Speaker:at the bottom a little bit.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:, the, the, the bowl, the, whatever you call it is plastic, but the whole
Speaker:thing is a really heavy machine.
Speaker:And I, I went on their, Um, because I don't believe in just throwing stuff out.
Speaker:Yes, I wanna, I wanna know if it can be fixed.
Speaker:I wanna know if I can get a replacement part, what I should do.
Speaker:And on their website, I was really pleased to see that they, if you, if you really
Speaker:can't fix it, they will take a trade-in of any old blender that you have and give
Speaker:money back, like quite a lot of money.
Speaker:Towards buying something new.
Speaker:And I thought that is really good because then they can refurbish it.
Speaker:If they can, they can take parts and use it for something else.
Speaker:If it's not their own blender, um, maybe they know how to dispose of it properly.
Speaker:I was, I was really happy to see that and it made me love that company even more
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That's funny you talking about this because it's, um, It's
Speaker:an incentive that is used by a lot of fashion brands as well.
Speaker:Dell are brands that, you know, that sell jeans or shoes and, um, and if you
Speaker:return, you use items, you get a discount.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:Even if it's not from the same brands.
Speaker:And, uh, I see it more and more often, and those brands just wanna make
Speaker:sure that those items get recycled and reused and repurposed properly.
Speaker:So I think it's a very, very good incentive.
Speaker:That's very good.
Speaker:Uh, on the, on the note of another appliance, um, we had a little
Speaker:rice cooker that we bought and the bowl had, was all scratched up.
Speaker:Like the, um, yeah, the k ick thing was all gone and so we recycled the bowl.
Speaker:, but the machine was fine.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:. So I ended up, I ended up looking it up and I found the company and it turned
Speaker:out the company was a Canadian company, which is, you know, not always the case.
Speaker:And I, I phoned them or emailed them or something and I was able
Speaker:to buy just the replace part.
Speaker:That's so cool.
Speaker:I, and they sent me the replace.
Speaker:Bowl.
Speaker:So I still had the lid.
Speaker:I still had the machine.
Speaker:Everything else was good.
Speaker:We recycled the metal at a metal recycling place and they sent me a bowl and the
Speaker:whole thing, uh, works great again.
Speaker:So it's like, yes, how could we do that more ? Wow.
Speaker:You just gave me a great idea because I have a pressure cooker and I have a
Speaker:problem with, um, uh, with, um, Lid.
Speaker:It's called the lid.
Speaker:Um, yeah, yeah.
Speaker:I cannot turn it anymore.
Speaker:And I, I mean, I've tried many, many different ways and I
Speaker:thought, oh no, I have to buy.
Speaker:That could be dangerous.
Speaker:Well, I cannot close it at all, so it's just, um, so I cannot, it cannot
Speaker:be dangerous, so I cannot close it.
Speaker:I cannot use it, except if I don't put the light on, which is probably use.
Speaker:And I thought, oh, well, I really enjoy using the pressure cooker because
Speaker:it's, um, it's, you know, it's, it's, it's a great way of cooking faster.
Speaker:So, but then I thought, wow, that means I need to buy a new one.
Speaker:But then probably I will fund the company and share my problem with them.
Speaker:And maybe they have, um, maybe they can, you know, they can help me with just,
Speaker:um, just the part, just the paw that is.
Speaker:. Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Oh, I think, I think, I think it'd be great to get back to that, um,
Speaker:instead of this disposable, this disposable, uh, world we're in now, huh.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Any other incentives?
Speaker:Any other things?
Speaker:We talked about incentives?
Speaker:Um hmm.
Speaker:Well, we start this conversation by saying, oh, oh, we have no ideas.
Speaker:But actually there are so many, many, many examples around us.
Speaker:Um, Let's see.
Speaker:I know there's a mascara company.
Speaker:I don't know what it's called, but you can return the makeup
Speaker:containers and, um, and the brushes.
Speaker:And they, they will do something with them.
Speaker:I don't know what, but they re recycle the brushes, mascara brushes on the tubes.
Speaker:and, um, oh, and the contact lenses too, because I was reorganizing and
Speaker:decluttering and I, we have this little bag, uh, from the contact lens company,
Speaker:and you're supposed to put the packaging and, uh, the old packaging and everything
Speaker:into this bag and then return it.
Speaker:Oh, really?
Speaker:And they'll recycle it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Oh, that's a great idea.
Speaker:Because one of the reason I'm, I don't like wearing contact lenses is,
Speaker:uh, there's so much plastic in it.
Speaker:cool.
Speaker:It's.
Speaker:So if you can return it, that's a great idea.
Speaker:You have to give me the, the name of the company.
Speaker:Can't remember it.
Speaker:I can't remember right off the top of my head, but I remember
Speaker:looking at this bag that came with something and I Oh, that's great.
Speaker:Oh, fantastic.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I think that's all the incentives I can think of for today.
Speaker:But if, you know, if people have incentive programs for reducing waste
Speaker:or for recycling that they wanna share with, They can come over to the carbon
Speaker:almanac.org, um, to the podcast and go down and tell us there's a way
Speaker:that you can share your story and give us your, uh, your tale, explain what
Speaker:you found, where you live, and, uh, and we would love to hear from you.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I'm sure that you'll have a love examples and ideas because, uh, we
Speaker:start with no ideas and, uh, and we, I don't know how many we got.
Speaker:I got quite a few.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So nice to talk to you, Jen.
Speaker:Nice talking to you.
Speaker:Lake was fun.
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