60. Lindsey Hoell on Building the Infrastructure For Circular Packaging

Purpose and Profit with Kathy Varol

Lindsey Hoell is co-founder and CEO of Dispatch Goods, a women-founded reverse logistics company building the infrastructure for circular packaging. Dispatch Goods enables direct-to-consumer brands to offer their customers’ meals and groceries in completely reusable packaging, again and again. Their mission is to make single-use waste a thing of the past, with the motto of “better, cheaper, greener”. Since 2020, Dispatch Goods has kept over 2 million single-use items from entering waste streams.

In this episode we discuss:

● Why reusable packaging is the gold-star ambition over compostable packaging

● The moment that inspired Lindsey to tackle single-use plastic

● The immense opportunity in reverse supply chain solutions

Key Takeaways:

● Mastering logistics is HARD. The reason Amazon has turned into one of the first (and few) trillion-dollar businesses is because they mastered logistics: get everything shipped anywhere fast. While Amazon’s logistics mastery is pumping out packages to homes, Dispatch Goods is building reverse logistics, returning packaging from homes so that it can be seamlessly reused for future orders. While it’s difficult for individual companies to build a circular capability in-house, there is a huge opportunity for Dispatch Goods to be a plug-and-play option across companies and become the third sustainable option: recyclable, compostable, or Dispatch. It’s time to keep packaging out of our waste streams.

● There aren’t many women working in logistics. According to JBAndrews Insights, of the 125 million people employed in Logistics & Supply Chain globally only 2% are female. The female-founded Dispatch Goods is a great example of the disruptive ideas that are possible when industry outsiders, and diverse perspectives, enter into a historically homogeneous field.

● I hadn’t thought much about single-use paper products, since all of the paper products I purchase are recycled, bamboo (which is more sustainable), or have been replaced entirely by reusable cloth options. But the other week, single-use paper products floated into my mind. I was driving through the national rainforest on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State, admiring the beautiful trees lining the road. I realized that the fate of many trees is toilet paper. What a depressing fate for such a majestic living and breathing thing. The average American uses an astounding 141 rolls of toilet paper a year. If the “tree to toilet pipeline” seems wrong to you too, consider switching to a bidet (Tushy is an easy-to-add option to a standard toilet), TP made from recycled paper, or TP made from bamboo (I have a subscription to Rizzi).

References:

Connect with Lindsey on LinkedIn

Dispatch Goods

Oceana

Surfrider Foundation

-Ocean Friendly Restaurants

“Plastic Recycling Is A Dead-End Street,” Greenpeace Report, October 24, 2022

World Centric

Imperfect Foods

Yay Lunch!

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