Cascade Alliance

Five Headline Friday (3/16/18)

Welcome to Friday!  Have you recovered from the transition to Daylight Saving Time?  This week’s headlines feature two stories about certain caffeinated beverages, coincidentally.  We also have stories about a real mischief-maker in waste diversion:  child car seats, the value to rural women entrepreneurs of market-based social enterprise, and online thrift is gaining momentum with the help of technology to increase profit margins.

Child car seats get drop-off expansion for recycling

“One less seat, one world to keep, is the new tagline for a partnership between Green Propeller Recycling and insurance company The Co-operators to expand child car seat recycling efforts in Ontario.”
Car seats generally have a six-year expiration period for safety.  This results in millions of car seats in landfills. Green Propeller Recycling deconstructs car seats to repurpose their components.  The drop-off expansion makes it easier for families to recycle their carseats, and the program also provides jobs to workers facing barriers to employment.

Social enterprise uses capitalism for uplift

This thoughtful piece illuminates the growing trend toward market-based models for sustainable social impact projects, and the particular benefits of this model to empower women entrepreneurs in rural places, reducing rural-to-urban migration, and benefiting local communities.

The Latte Levy vs the Futon Fee?

The managing director of the UK-based Furniture Recycling Group has grounds to complain.  He’s a little bitter about a tax on disposable coffee cups, while the costs of furniture and mattress waste are being overlooked by government regulators seeking to promote waste diversion.

Hugh Jackman’s Social Enterprise Coffee is Good, But it’s Bad, But it’s Good!

We love fair trade coffee!  We love Hugh Jackman following in Newman’s Own footsteps and using profits for social impact!  We don’t love Keurig so much.  But we offer you this tale, because caffeine is on our minds…

This Online Thrift Store Aims To Be At The Forefront Of A $15 Billion ‘Recommerce’ Industry

‘Recommerce’ seems to be a term gaining traction these days.  The concept of reselling a used item is nothing new, but the movement toward online resale is gaining momentum, as technological advancements make the business model more economically viable.  Swap.com is the leader in this field.