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8 Great Businesses Fighting the Waste Crisis
Supporting businesses that champion sustainability is a great action we can take to live greener lives! There are plenty of sustainably-minded businesses out there, each with a creative approach to quashing the waste crisis once and for all! From technology, to food, to fashion… here’s 8 of our favourite brands and businesses that are pioneering positive, green changes to our throw-away society.
1. Klyk
This one’s for the businesses! Klyk aims to tackle the e-waste crisis by inspiring and aiding businesses to be more sustainable with their technology. They make it simple for companies to embrace a more environmentally-conscious approach with IT, providing sustainable tech solutions and support. [1]
On their website, they even have a handy sustainability calculator! You can enter your company’s current tech usage and it estimates your environmental impact. They’ll also tell you how much money you can save through using sustainable IT. [2]
If you want to make your business’s tech more sustainable, Klyk is the company for you.
2. Backmarket
Backmarket give pre-loved tech a new lease of life by refurbishing them and selling them on, which dramatically extends the lifespan of the product. [3] Their refurbished smartphones create 89% less e-waste than buying new!
Backmarket’s business model is not just great for the planet, it’s also great for your wallet, with products sold at prices of up to 50% less than buying new. As well as this, you can trade old devices into Backmarket for cash! Your old device will be refurbished and sold on, giving you the opportunity to actively contribute to their circular economy. [4]
If you are in need of a new phone or device, and want to be environmentally-conscious, check out Backmarket.
3. Fairphone
Fairphone’s approach to sustainable tech is to make it themselves! Fairphone creates, as they state, ‘fair(er)’ phones - built to last with hardware warrantees and software support. This aims to eliminate our current unsustainable tech culture where consumers are forced to switch out phones every few years. [5]
They are also changing the tech industry by advocating for the consumer’s right to repair! They are transparent about what parts are inside each phone. Fairphone believes this is vital for consumers so we can maintain, fix, and look after our devices, rather than just throwing them away if they break. As well as this, the phones themselves are made with more fair and recycled materials. [6]
Fairphone’s environmental impact has been incredibly positive. In 2022, their business took back 15 tons of E-waste, which as they state on their website, is the weight of 2 fully grown T-rexes! [6]
4. Kibu x Batch.Works Headphones
Kibu and Batch.Works have teamed up to create children’s headphones that advocate sustainability! [7]
Children get to build the headphones for themselves, teaching them valuable STEM skills. The headphones are also 3D-printed, modular, and easily repairable, should they break. [8]
This product encourages children to build, repair and recycle, whilst using sustainable materials! (70% of the materials used to make the headphones are recycled bioplastic). [8] This approach to technology not only reduces waste, but nurtures a creativity and awareness of sustainability in young users.
5. The Wonki Collective
The Wonki Collective is an innovative business that helps food manufacturers reduce their food waste. The founders of The Wonki Collective identified that the food manufacturing industry is deepy unsustainable, (7x more food waste at manufacturing level compared to retail). [9]
Therefore, their goal is to help manufacturers handle their surplus (1 million tones of it is being wasted in the supply chain). This is achieved, by advocating a circular supply chain, that forwards one companies food surplus, to another to use for themselves. They use an innovative matchmaking service to do this! [9]
Their progress is exciting, and they state that at their current pace, they will ‘save £50M of surplus ingredients by the end of 2026, avoiding+70k tons CO2 emissions’. [10]
6. Too Good To Go
Too good to go will be a favourite amongst the foodies! The company is on a mission to fight food waste through re-distributing surplus food to consumers. When food is going to waste in stores, cafes and restaurants, the Too Good To Go App allows users to rescue the perfectly good food, at half price or less. [11]
You can download their app and enjoy many delicious treats, in a way that is beneficial to the planet. Your favourite food suppliers will inevitably be available through the app, as Too Good To Go work with over 160,000 businesses including Greggs, Burger King and Gail’s. [11]
Since its foundation in 2016, the company has saved over 330 million meals from being wasted![12] Saving the planet never tasted so good!
7. Sojo
Sojo is on a mission to fix the fashion industry and make clothing repairs mainstream. [13] Fast fashion is having a devastating impact on the planet, and Sojo’s answer to this is to make clothing repairs and alterations accessible. They repair broken clothes, and tailor them when they no longer fit us! [14]
Their service is very easy to use; you simply describe to them your item that needs to be fixed or altered, they pick it up, fix it and drop it back to you! [14] By keeping our clothes out of landfill, Sojo is doing incredible work to make clothing repairs more attainable for many.
8. Olio
Olio’s goal is to make throwing away and buying new a last resort. They instead aim to normalise sharing what we no longer need. Olio provides a marketplace that enables you to share your old things, and find the things you do need from people in the local community. This, as well as reducing our waste, has a beautiful element of community to it. [15]
Olio’s approach to sustainability allows us to have new items and giveaway old ones, in a way that is good for the planet!
‘Useless to you…Useful to someone down the road’ [15]
9. BONUS COMPANY: Team Repair
Team Repair are a London based start-up dedicated to making science fun for kids, especially for those who struggle to engage with a traditional STEM education. We ship out gadgets with faults designed into them for students to fix, to instil the wonder of repair whilst teaching a range of curriculum aligned STEM lessons.
Our rental model is intrinsically sustainable! We send kits out in their broken state, then when the kids have fixed them, they send them back to us, for us to re-break. From there, we refresh and re-break the same kits, then send them off to the next school. This way, lots of students can learn about repair and science, without creating any waste.
Our programme takes students from first-time fixers to tech wizards! Our goal isn’t just to teach about the environment, but to curate activities that inspire a shift in behaviours and nurture a problem-solving mindset. We believe that this will empower the next generation of sustainably-minded engineers!
Conclusion
Supporting sustainable businesses creates, tangible real change! With businesses as creative and innovative as these, your support can truly make a difference. Let's champion them together, and fix the future!
[2] https://helloklyk.com/pages/sustainability-calculator
[3] https://www.backmarket.co.uk/en-gb/about-us
[4] https://www.backmarket.co.uk/en-gb/buyback/home
[5] https://www.fairphone.com/
[6] https://shop.fairphone.com/about-us
[9] https://www.thewonkicollective.com/our-mission
[10] https://www.thewonkicollective.com/ourstory
[11] https://www.toogoodtogo.com/about-us
[12] https://www.toogoodtogo.com/about-us
[13] https://www.sojo.uk/mission
[14] https://www.sojo.uk/how-it-works
