I am proud to announce the official launch of @Trashie today. If you know For Days, you know we’ve been forging a path in circularity. Today we are putting five years of research, insight, iteration, and innovation into practice in a much larger way.
I've been on a mission to build a scalable (i.e profitable) model that could transform commerce. We started with fashion because it’s incredibly wasteful. The good news is that as we listened and learned, we built an insanely engaged community of consumers ready for something new and retailers ready to make moves.
Our “aha” moment: EVERYONE has too much stuff. Many of us struggle to get rid of unwanted fashion in a way that feels good. Resale can be time-consuming and no one is thrilled to get $2 for barely worn jeans. Throwing things out is guilt-inducing and we can't ignore that donations also get tossed. The hard truth is that people aren’t solely motivated by “doing the right thing.” They have to find VALUE in doing the right thing.
The same is true for retailers. Companies talk about emission reductions, net-zero targets, and sustainability strategies, but at the end of the day, profits drive decisions. And that’s OK. That’s the reality we need to work within to solve real problems.
When we launched the Take Back Bag, it was a wild experiment. But the concept was simple: for $20 you buy a bag and can recycle almost anything (think old sports bras, that Zara sequin top you wore last NYE, your 2-year-old’s pants she outgrew in 2 months). Returning the bag is as easy as an online return and for “doing the right thing,” you earned $20 to spend at For Days. We sold out of the first batch of bags faster than we could keep up. We kept building and in 2023, we were on track to sell 300K TBB’s. We needed to think bigger.
I mean…wouldn’t it be great if you could spend your $20 anywhere? Could we get big companies to participate? The Take Back Bag has a direct impact on waste reduction, resource preservation, and emissions reduction. I thought it was possible.
So, Trashie was born: a unified rewards system where customers who participate in our Take Back Bag program earn TrashieCash which can be redeemed for rewards at places like Sephora, Uber Eats, and Trip Advisor (and one day, everywhere!) We are calling all retailers to join because they can acquire customers in an innovative and financially efficient way while tracking their financial and environmental impact. We report on landfill reduction, water savings, and carbon emission reductions in real-time. If partners want to go deeper, they can offer the Take Back Bag to their customers and fully trace our recycling process.
Walmart.com launched the Take Back Bag last month. Walmart!! We are excited to see what this program can do for their customers and their metrics. At a time when consumption is doubling every 10 years, we are holding fast to our mission to transform mainstream consumerism, and we can’t wait for our next chapter.
