Send us Fan Mail

Cardboard boxes protect products on their way to us, but many are crushed and recycled after just one use. What if more of them could be used again?

On this episode of Earth Your While, Jack and Ellie meet Marty Metro, founder and CEO of UsedCardboardBoxes.com, the US counterpart to Reuseabox. Marty has spent more than two decades building a business around a deceptively simple idea: match the boxes one company no longer needs with another company that can use them.

The challenge is making reuse work at scale. Boxes vary in size, quality and quantity, and the right supply has to meet the right customer in the right place at the right time. Marty shares how technology helps solve that puzzle, how his early venture nearly sank, and what it takes to turn a promising idea into a growing business.

Topics covered include:

• Why so many usable boxes are crushed after a single trip
• How UsedCardboardBoxes.com connects box suppliers with businesses that need them
• The surprising logistics behind making reuse work at scale
• Marty’s journey from an early business setback to building a company with nearly 200 employees
• Why execution, adaptability and hiring the right people matter
• How businesses can make reuse easier to adopt alongside new packaging

Music by Stock_Studio from Pixabay.

Send us Fan Mail

What if a gift card could do more than give someone a choice of present - it could introduce them to brands doing business better?

On Earth Your While, Jack and Ellie speak with Paul Zhu, co-founder and CTO of EcoSwap, a multi-store digital gift card featuring sustainable brands. Paul explains how his experience in engineering and an earlier startup led him to focus on shifting consumer behaviour, and why he sees gifting as a way to direct demand toward businesses with better practices.

Topics covered include:

• The surprising scale of the gift-card market-and the money left unspent
• Can a sustainable gift card really change what people buy?
• How EcoSwap chooses better brands without expecting perfection
• Why being "eco" isn't enough: making sustainable shopping cool
• The persistence it takes to win over big-name brands
• Can we build a thriving economy within planetary boundaries?

Music by Stock_Studio from Pixabay.

Send us Fan Mail

We all know that disposable nappies are convenient, but they create mountains of waste. We know switching to reusable nappies is better for the planet, however, it can feel like one more thing for busy parents to manage.

On the latest episode of Earth Your While, Jack and Ellie talk to Elisabeth Whitebread, founder of NappyLoop, about making reusable nappies easier for families by bringing them into nurseries. Elisabeth shares how her work in environmental campaigning and her own experience as a parent led her to create a nursery-first nappy subscription service, and why making sustainable choices easier matters more than making parents feel guilty.

Topics covered include:

• Elisabeth’s journey from conservation campaigning to nappies
• Why parents often find reusable nappies difficult to adopt
• How NappyLoop’s nursery and commercial laundry model works
• Designing a cotton nappy for nursery staff and high-temperature laundering
• The environmental impact of disposable nappies and “compostable” claims
• How reusable nappies may support toilet training
• Elisabeth’s vision for making cloth nappies a mainstream option for families

Music by Stock_Studio from Pixabay.