The OMR Festival in Hamburg attracted around 70,000 digital enthusiasts, including many e-commerce professionals for whom attendance was a must. hey circle joined as well, aiming to drive its mission: revolutionizing eCommerce with sustainable, reusable shipping packaging. In the startup area, hey circle showcased its reusable offering at its own booth: In addition, outside the exhibition halls, hey circle demonstrated the problem that needs to be solved with an installation.
eCommerce has been booming for years, but with over 4.5 billion parcel shipments annually in Germany alone, it faces a waste problem: the vast majority of orders result in new package materials being resource-intensively produced for each shipment, only to end up in the bin after single use. This bothers consumers.
To draw attention to the extent of this waste and simultaneously present a solution, hey circle staged a reusable vs. single-use experiment outside the OMR24 halls: 50 single-use cardboard boxes on one side, and 1 reusable box of similar size on the other of a cargo bike.
hey circle COO and Co-Founder Rebecca Steinke explaines:
„It was important for us to illustrate how much single-use waste can truly be avoided by using reusable shipping packaging. Our hey circle box not only saves CO2 emissions through its 50-time reuse but is also significantly easier to handle and transport compared to a stack of 50 single-use cardboard boxes. This was reaffirmed during the setup of this installation."
The demo station was sustainably propelled by human muscle, with hey circle partnering with the local cargo bike Startup XYZ Cargo for transportation.
Reusable shipping packaging has a positive impact
In this specific case, the cardboard boxes were given a second life, but typically, this is not the case. Single-use cardboard boxes contribute to approximately 1.5 million tons of waste and 3 million tons of CO2 emissions annually.
„More and more customers are demanding that companies save resources and offer them the choice between single-use and reusable options. Success in eCommerce and sustainable practices are increasingly intertwined..“
With hey circle's reusable shipping packaging, depending on the size of the packaging, it's possible to save up to 94% of waste and 76% of CO2 emissions compared to using 50 new single-use cardboard boxes, based on the impact calculation of Institute for Environmental Strategies Ökopol. Companies like Drykorn, the Austrian Post, and Voited are already adopting this shipping solution to serve customers, partners, and intralogistics needs.
OMR Festival a win for hey circle
„The OMR Festival was a success for us. The festival is huge and offered us the chance to reach a large number of people and further increase awareness of hey circle! Most of all, we invite those responsible for e-commerce to be a part of the reusable journey.“
Would you like to use hey circle's resource-saving shipping packaging for your online shop? Our sales team would love to hear about your logistics challenges!
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