Rheaply Launches The Reuse Initiative to Educate and Empower People to Reuse

April 22, 2021 at 09:00 AM EDT

The initiative invites people, businesses, and their employees to reuse one item, with the aim of making reuse a habit.

Rheaply, a climate tech company that combines a resource-sharing network with a user-friendly asset management platform, today announced the launch of The Reuse Initiative, a multi-pronged campaign to educate and inspire businesses, employees, and the general public about the power of reuse. The initiative will focus on providing learning resources and challenging people to take one simple action: reuse one item.

Today, in the U.S. economy alone, $630B in physical workplace assets sit idle each year.¹ If those resources remain unused, they will be thrown away, adding 60M tons of waste to landfills. At the same time, there are organizations that are looking for such items. Without action, organizations will buy new items and usable items will continue going to waste.

Rheaply’s technology has been disrupting that paradigm by changing the way organizations think about and utilize items; by making behavioral changes easier and more profitable for organizations, the company has been empowering organizations to harness the benefits of the circular economy, a model that emphasizes “designing out waste and pollution, keeping products and materials in use, and regenerating natural systems.”²

With The Reuse Initiative, Rheaply aims to spread this mindset shift further by showing every person where they fit into the circular economy. On the initiative’s landing page, rheaply.com/reuse, people can learn more about the power of reuse and download action plans to help them implement reuse in their homes or workplaces. On social media, people can respond to Rheaply’s challenge to reuse one item by posting a picture of the item they reused using the hashtags #ReuseInitiative or #RheaplyEarthDay. For each of these posts made between Earth Day and World Environment Day (June 5), and for each item posted for reuse on Rheaply’s Asset Exchange Manager during that same period, Rheaply will pledge one tree to the U.S. chapter of 1t.org, a platform that aims to connect, empower and mobilize a global reforestation community to conserve, restore and grow one trillion trees globally by 2030.

“Although we’re launching this initiative on Earth Day, our intention is to show people the massive impact they could have if they reused every day,” said Dr. Garry Cooper, CEO and Co-founder of Rheaply. “By demonstrating the power of collective action, inspiring camaraderie, and providing actionable takeaways through The Reuse Initiative, Rheaply aims to empower people to make that a reality.”

Because organizations typically hold a great deal more resources than the average individual, The Reuse Initiative will provide resources specifically aimed at helping individuals within an organization show decision-makers the value of reuse, including reuse-related testimonials from Rheaply partners SAP, the City of San Francisco, and PYXERA Global.

“The valuation of materials and people is important. If you just value purchasing materials by price, and do not value the cost to the planet and cost to the people in extracting those materials, transporting those materials, and converting those materials to products, then you are missing the value game completely,” said Padmini Ranganathan, Global Vice President, Product Strategy, SAP.

This initiative comes on the heels of Rheaply’s recent Series A funding, which helped to make The Reuse Initiative a reality. In the coming months, Rheaply will continue its efforts to show people where they fit into the circular economy. To learn more about where you fit in, check out rheaply.com/reuse.

About Rheaply

Rheaply is the technology for connecting organizations with resources and catalyzing the circular economy. As the only market solution that combines an asset management system with an online marketplace, Rheaply’s Asset Exchange Manager (AxM)™ enables organizations to manage and transact physical assets more effectively, eliminating unnecessary waste and spend. To learn more about Rheaply, visit Rheaply.com or follow @RheaplyInc.

For career inquiries, contact careers@rheaply.com.

¹ https://rheaply.com/resources/blog/circularity-gap/

² https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/circular-economy/concept