Our company is solving the environmental problem of packaging waste and reducing packaging emissions, while also solving the economic problem of wasted value in the form of packaging. You’ve likely heard many of the statistics around packaging waste; that the equivalent of one garbage truck of plastic enters the ocean every minute, or that by 2030 there will be more plastic than fish in the ocean.

However, a lesser-known statistic is that $100 billion worth of packaging thrown away every year could have been recycled or reused. This statistic holds the underlying business case for Circulr. Currently, companies spend a huge portion of their budget on expensive packaging meant to entice consumers and communicate their brand values. This valuable asset is being thrown away after a single use, forcing companies to constantly resupply this crucial cornerstone of their business. By reusing packaging, brands can save money on their packaging by simply recapturing and reusing the packaging they’ve already paid for.

With COVID and other shipping delays putting pressure on an already short supply of glass jars in particular, along with similar food containers, wasting these items has become akin to throwing away a stainless steel water bottle after just a few sips.

Our process keeps valuable product packaging in circulation for longer, keeping the packaging out of landfills, and helping the companies get more out of every dollar put towards packaging. Our physical management services collect and return packaging to brands in the same condition that they would receive it from a virgin packaging supplier. However, because this packaging was collected from people in the local community, it will have fewer emissions involved in its transport and no emissions from new production.

In addition to directly solving the environmental and economic issues around throwing away packaging, Circulr also provides our customers with a number of additional benefits. Broadly speaking, brands that switch from single-use to reusable have been anecdotally shown to see an increase in customer loyalty, as customers are more like to buy another unit when they return their last. An advantage that’s more unique to Circulr is that our software platform will provide brands with extremely valuable data on their customers. This data will not only help brands lower the cost of their reuse program but also increase their return on marketing spending by better catering to customers’ needs. Statistics from our platform like the average time between purchase and return, or most returned products, can help brands better understand their reuse system and optimize their operations to ensure they always have enough packaging on hand to meet production without over-purchasing new virgin packaging. In addition, statistics like most frequently returned to locations and average consumption time can help brands better time and specialize their messaging to consumers in order to increase sales and customer loyalty.

Finally, we also create benefits outside the brand and end consumer by helping support the local economy. Reuse inherently requires that jobs and economic activity are moved closer to where products are consumed, meaning that the jobs that used to be offshored as part of a product’s global production are now brought into the local community. The many jobs abroad that are required to manufacture and ship packaging to Ontario will eventually be replaced by local jobs in transportation, sanitization, and administrative roles.