June 13, 2014

A Handy Way To Tackle Food Waste

Most households are reluctant to recycle food waste because it is typically a time consuming, confusing and messy task (and don't get us started on those pesky fruit flies!). Even the threat of increased bin charges and penalties is not enough to persuade households to avail of the brown bin and help save the environment.

Straight From Box To Bin

This week's featured business Obeo, is the brainchild of Kate Cronin. Having completed her Masters in food disposal, Kate decided to design an easy-to-use food waste box that can go straight into the brown bin. Perfect for modern urban living, the box is made from wet-strength-treated paper with an open and close tab that can be put straight into the brown bin when full.

A Boxful Of Personality

As Gerard said on the show last night, the product itself and the website are impressively designed and, with Dunnes Stores agreeing to stock the product from the beginning of July, Kate and her business partner Elizabeth have a real opportunity to make a success of the business. However, great design is not always enough of a selling point so introducing a little more personality to the product will help encourage those reluctant recyclers (yes George, we're talking about you!) to try out this fantastic product for themselves.

Over To You

How can Kate introduce a little more personality to her product and packaging? Listen back to the show on Kickstart Your Business and tell us what you think.

We'd love to hear from you.

(Kickstart Your Business is broadcast live on The Right Hook on Newstalk106 in Ireland every Thursday at 6.40pm)

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Liz here from Obeo. Thanks very much for having Obeo on the show yesterday, some great advice for us! I take your points about the brand perhaps needing some more personality. We purposefully kept the product itself quite pared back as it's going to be sitting on people's counter tops and we didn't want to bombard them with messsaging on the product. But we do have plans to introduce different versions of Obeo such as ones aimed at children which will have a hungry monster graphic who wants to eat your food waste printed on the box. We will also have a grass graphic printed on another version to symbolise the life cycle of food waste, from kitchen to brown bin to compost. So there is lots of potential for the product in the future. As for our packaging we wanted to keep our branding clear, honest and informative. But we will continue to develop it based on customer feedback. And we would welcome any feedback your readers may have! Liz Fingleton from Obeo.

Unknown said...

A great idea introducing different versions of Obeo- just the spalsh of personality needed! Looking ofrward to purchasing Obeo when it hits Dunnes Stores In July.