The circle of it: This company reduces friction points associated with reusable packaging, making it a more accessible option for brands to provide products in reusable shipping packages.
returnity
Summary
Returnity offers reusable shipping solutions for brands to use to shop their products and creates a system such that reusable containers can be used and also collected back from the customer. The company produces customized, reusable shipping bags and boxes and the systems necessary to transition brands from their existing packaging to more sustainable solutions. The company’s original model, where consumers sent empty bags back to brand didn’t make financial sense, and the company now focuses on systems where circularity already exists rather than relying on consumers to do the right thing. The company now works with clients that offer subscription services like Rent the Runway where consumers can send back their old clothes to the brand, thereby ensuring that the reusable packaging will be returned. (Source) The company is now determining many reusable models based on the needs of its clients. For Walmart, the company supplies reusable bags optimized for home grocery delivery service and manages the cleaning and resupply of the packaging. For New Balance, it leads reusable shipping packaging deployment for the New Balance Team Sports initiative, creating an efficient and environmentally friendly system to ship samples to and from partners. For Happy Returns, the company changes how goods are moved between stores and warehouses. (Source) The company is also working with shipping companies like DHL and a number of national postal services to design closed-loop logistics systems that make it easy-and cost-effective-to re-aggregate empty packaging.
Story
The company is founded by Mike Newman who started a reusable shopping bag business, that happened to have James Reinhardt, founder of Thredup, as a customer. Reinhardt’s challenge to the company was to make a reasonable shipping bag, and out of that challenge, Returnity was born. (Source) Newman has a background in sustainability and supply chain and has worked places like the Sierra Club, startups like Climb and reverse logistical and supply chain companies like ReCellular. (Source)
Pic Credit: Returnity
“One of the harder challenges we’ve faced as a company is that the disposable packaging we collectively use has been the standard for decades. It’s been largely dismissed as an area for innovation as everyone knows how difficult it would be to change the system. We’ve been trying to uncover and understand the structural implications of the change we’re trying to make as early as possible. For example, most purchasing departments have monthly expense budgets for cardboard boxes, so if you ask them to make an investment of $1M to purchase reusable assets that will save them $100,000 a month it’s great from an ROI perspective, but you’re asking them to capitalize something they typically expense, and that can sometimes be really hard to do.”
Mike Newman in an interview
Founder(s)
Mike Newman
Headquarters
Brooklyn, NY
In business since
2014
Business type
for profit
Impact
Technology
creating systems for reusable shipping packages
Material
logistics, recycled material for reusable containers
Website
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