#guerillaepr
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We can't wait for the world to pass Extended Producer Responsibility laws. Right now, anyone can encourage EPR and inform corporations about their global impact.
#guerillaepr
- Collect a box full of corporate items
- Print a shipping label to corporate headquarters
- Invoice time and shipping costs. Note environmental costs
- Include educational content about waste colonialism and urge them to adopt EPR policies
- QR code to videos about Kantamanto market, Atacama Desert, Central American resale
what companies can do now
- Establish corporate swag closets for branded waste prevention. Use facilities budget or calculate value based on the volume or tonnage of materials diverted and dumpster fees, plus the cost avoided from buying new merch. Make internal wearing of old logos fun and vintage.
- Prevent employee textile waste and increase skills and appreciation of textile labor in workshops that engage employees in reprocessing returns (t-shirt yarn, rag rug weaving, clothing repair). Use the team building, events, and training budgets.
- Before ordering new merch, poll team whether it is really desired. Pay locals to design and screen print existing shirts, or embroider sew-on patches to make logos removable and avoid new branded waste. Use event-specific logos on recyclable and compostable elements like cake decoration, ice sculpture, custom chocolates, paper decor. Use events and marketing budget.
- Pay local community artists to create installations using returned inventory. Use these to decorate corporate offices or partner with a community organization and design something for their facility. Use the facilities or furnishings budget, or tax write-off the art donation.
- Partner with upcycling artisans and equitably pay them to create a bespoke rework collection. Use established sales and marketing channels to sell these to the public as limited editions. Calculate value by adding dump and incineration fees plus cost of virgin materials required to create equivalent collection. Use marketing and corporate social responsibility budgets.
- Partner with upcycling companies to convert mass volumes of regularly occurring waste textiles into accessories pouches, bags, hats. Include payment for the design, overhead, labor to transport, store, and deconstruct. Buy these finished goods back for distribution within the company or sell to the public. Calculate value by adding cost of equivalent purchases of new merch, the cost of dump fees, transportation fees for materials disposal or destruction, cost of carbon offsets. Use the events, marketing, facilities budgets.
- Evaluate preconsumer textile waste from botched products and deadstock and establish alternatives to incineration and landfill. Pay for rework/redesign. Work with community organizations to identify recipients in need, do a thoughtful “right sized” donation or pay a flat donation to cover the storage overhead and materials processing time to redistribute the items into the community.
- Use staff time to evaluate product return patterns, identify causes of common damage, and make recommendations to design team for prevention. Identify SKUs not-commonly found in returns/disposal and determine patterns for why they are still in use.
- Establish a “take back system” following the waste hierarchy, use a shipping label or store-based collection service and establish regional relationships with downcycling entities to lower travel footprint of unusable returns. Work with a resale platform to develop branded recommerce and offer generous credits for purchases within the second hand market to encourage recommerce adoption rather than new consumption.
- Establish closed-loop industrial symbiosis by co-locating an internal remanufacturing facility adjacent to manufacturing or returns locations and develop an upcycling team in-house.
closed-loop solutions for businesses
YOUR TRASH, YOUR TREASURE
Close the loop in your business by working with us to design a gift collection made from your excess materials. They instantly communicate your green values to your customers and employees. Custom upcycled gifts are perfect for work anniversaries, events, retreats, tradeshows, auctions, decor, and more. We coordinate the design process and collaborate with local artisans to minimize footprint and maximize social impact.
upcycle at scale
Shop your own closet. If you have a large volume of the same type of unused item (i.e., a box of last year’s conference notebooks) we are here to design a solution that will restore the usefulness of these items. Inventory becomes unusable or unsellable for a variety of reasons (old logo, wrong year, misprint). Businesses hold onto these items because they know they’re still useful but don’t have a plan for what to do. We design a new use for these items that aligns with your purchasing needs for the year ahead. Avoid the environmental impact of new purchases and upcycle what you already have.
Printers & Manufacturers
If you design or coordinate the fabrication of custom printed products you’ve navigated the many issues which occur during the design process. Unavoidable problems with machines, order changes, and supply chain issues create unexpected waste. Unusable unsellable custom branded inventory is thrown away because until now there hasn’t been a local solution that does the leg work to discretely address branded merchandise waste. We offer local upcycling solutions that are conscientious of your and your clients’ brand protection needs and allow you to divert this material waste from landfill.
I'M INTERESTED
We’d love to supply you with products that fit your needs, exceed expectations and help the environment. Fill out the form below and we will be in touch.