Woola’s circular future: The pilot project

No innovative product is perfect from the beginning. We see our product and business model development as improvements and dreams spread over a long period of time, split between different stages on the timeline. 

Today, our main goal is to reduce the demand for petroleum-based bubble wrap. We do this by providing an alternative that is better from the environmental and societal aspect – and winning a growing part of the market currently led by bubble wrap. But, that is only a part of the master plan. 

Moving from better to far better means shifting from the linear (take-make-use-dispose) to the circular (grow-make-use-restore) pattern. Shortly said, we want to make sure the resources once taken from nature will be used again and again, as many times as possible.

Circular packaging

Currently, crazy amounts of packaging waste never make it to the recycling systems and eventually pollute the environment. Only 2% of plastic packaging is kept within the closed loop and recycled into a material of the same or similar quality.

As the demand for packaging is growing, so are the mountains of single-use packaging waste. Therefore we have to rethink the whole system. Moving from linear to circular packaging systems is one of the solutions to the growing problem.

Setting up Woola’s returns system

There is currently no accessible circular system for wool, meaning the Wool Envelopes being shipped out today will either end up in a landfill, composting facility or, in the best-case scenario, get reused or upcycled. 

We want to create a returns system in the markets we’re active in that lets people return the Wool Envelopes. This way, the material stays in the production loop.

The envelopes that are in good condition can be reused after we sanitize and reshape them with heat. The more damaged ones will be shredded into tiny pieces and mixed with the raw material.

The pilot project

We’re doing a test run of the idea in collaboration with Kaubamaja, the leading department store in Estonia. We’re placing Woola’s Returns Box in Kaubamaja’s department stores (in Tallinn and Tartu). This means people in Estonia can return the Wool Envelopes from May 28th 2021, by bringing the envelopes to one of the boxes.

The goal of the pilot project is to put the concept to the test.

How many packages will make their way back to us via the box? How many processing cycles will the wool put up with? How willing are online stores to collaborate? How many conveniences do end-users look for to start using the system? 

We’ll find out by trial and error.