2023 was the year of expansion for Ree!
We started the year with a warehouse that was full to the ceiling with sorted material waiting to be taken to the various different recycling centres. It got to the point where we no longer had space to do the sorting.
It was time to take the dive and move into a bigger space.
Along with a bigger space we also needed more staff and more equipment. No longer were we the little team doing a few hundred kilograms of material a month, now we were working in tonnes.
“2021 was the year we laid the foundations, in this case I think the analogy of a pool works, and in 2022 we filled it with customers and clients. 2023 therefore was the year where we tried not to drown in it. Being busy is a great problem to have and we’ve had to face many challenges, but nothing that we weren’t able to handle thanks to the amazing team we have created and will continue to grown in 2024!” - Daniel Ashcroft, Chief Marketing Officer
Here are the highlights, and lowlights, of 2023
15,483.08kg of recycling
11,703.18kg of CO2 avoided
396,940.102 KW of energy saved
January
2023 started off nicely with us being featured in the Goodness Magazine as part of their 2023 New Years Resolution article.
March
As we continued to expand our B2B recycling service we needed to supply clients with a storage box to hold their recycling in between the collections. We didn’t want to just have big boxes made of cardboard or plastic so instead we worked with Terrax to build our boxes from their boards made from non-recyclable material. And so, the Ree collection box was born.
April
Our quest is to reduce the amount of material going into landfills and a major material that we couldn’t do anything with was…FOOD.
We start our investigation into how we can provide our members and B2B clients with a solution to manage their food waste. It’s still an ongoing project but we hope to have it fully launched in 2024.
May
In partnership with Maz Fletcher (@thatclimatechick) we started our mini educational series “Which bin does this go in” in order to help people to understand what material can be recycled and where to put it. The first video also allowed Jas to show off his catching skills that he can add to his cricket sizzle reel.
June
Transparency is a vital part of what we do and in June we filled in a big gap in our material journey. We partnered with Rebound Plastic Exchange to be our Plastic Sales Platform, allowing us to provide tracking of where our plastic goes when it leaves our facility and who has bought it.
August
It finally happened!!! After months (probably close to 18 of them) we finally launched our podcast: Reethinking Sustainability
Season 1 of the podcast wrapped up in 2023 and I’m sure we’ll listen back in a few years time a cringe about how we sound but it’s an incredibly proud moment for us all and we look forward to season 2 coming in early 2024.
October
The next stage of our Food Waste adventure happened when The Sustainable City gave us a plot of land to create our compost
November
Not much happened in October…only COP28. Read our COP28 review article for our breakdown of it.