Bower & recycling 2022 - A year in review

What an eventful year for the recycling industry and Bower to look back on. New laws and regulations were introduced and we successfully entered the UK and hit new milestones in our home turf Sweden. In this very first newsletter episode, we share some rays of sunshine for sustainability, hard facts concerning your business, good-to-knows, and more.

Bower success stories

*They’re not starting this newsletter by bragging about themselves, are they?* Well, not quite. We just want to give kudos to our +435 000 users! Incredible that so many already share our mission of a trash-free world. Last year, those amazing people brought us one baby step closer to this ambitious goal by setting a new record of 1.5 billion grams of saved CO2. To paint you a picture: 1.5 billion grams of CO2 equals driving a full travel bus from Stockholm to Paris 6 000 times - so that’s some pretty big baby making steps here.

One might also call Bower an influencer because we motivated 25% of our app users to start with recycling and 35% to recycling more than before downloading the app.*

Okay, a little (more) bragging because we're still bursting with happiness: We won the Nordic People's Choice Awards at the Global Startup Awards.

New laws and regulations

Here comes the heavy but important stuff. In 2022, the EU introduced a new ambitious proposal for a packaging regulation* that aims to?prevent packaging waste, boost reuse and refill, and make all packaging recyclable by 2030.?These are all very important actions to close the loop on packaging waste and ensure a circular packaging industry. This concerns all member states and all packaging categories and even though the law is not finally approved yet, there are still many good reasons to keep an eye on the direction it is proposing.

These are the (very simplified) highlights:

• All packaging must be recyclable by 2030
• Recycling target of 70%
• Harmonised mandatory EU recycling label on packaging
• Producers are responsible for informing consumers on waste prevention, separate collection, and the environmental importance of consumer recycling - by use of modern technology means (oh, what a coincidence: Bower is one of the best of those!)
• Plastic packaging to contain +30% recycled plastic

Overwhelmed? No worries, we got you - literally, we are just one email away from being your partner in crime law.

More brands than ever are joining the movement

In 2022, we welcomed many amazing brands who are just as eager as us to turn recycling into a rewarding no-brainer. Caution, some name dropping follows: Unilever, Nespresso, Nescafe, Zoegas, Apotea, Orkla Foods, Bonduelle, ACO, SodaStream, Coop, Skincity, Quorn Foods, and 78 more partners, we would not want to miss. But why are we talking? We hand the mic over to them:

Very excitingly, we also teamed up with the Swedish Packaging Collection Service,?FTI. Supported by their recycling expertise Bower can offer an even more extensive knowledge hub for brands and develop the app further to inspire, challenge and educate better recycling habits for the consumers.

#didyouknow

If you recycle plastic packaging, you save 50% of CO2 emissions compared to incineration.*

What is your recycling highlight 2022?

We are genuinely curious what change, challenge or milestone occupied your thoughts. Let’s have a chat in the post comments! ??

*Sources:

https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_22_7155

https://fti.se/en/consumer/the-recycling-process

NPS user survey Bower 2022