[Yahoo News Report]An experience with the epidemic led to the birth of an environmental social enterprise. Kelvin, a student at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, was diagnosed with the new crown virus earlier this year and ordered takeaway meals every day during the quarantine period, realizing that Hong Kong people consume a lot of disposable lunch boxes every day. He then dropped out of school to set up an environmental protection social enterprise to provide environmental protection lunch box loan and return services. The team won an award in an entrepreneurial competition earlier, and since mid-August, he has launched a pilot project at HKUST, hoping to promote it to regional restaurants in the future.
Photojournalist: Davies
Kelvin is a fifth-grader in the Department of Quantitative Finance at the University of Science and Technology. His family of four contracted the virus in the fifth wave of the epidemic. He relied on takeaways to order meals for three meals, and consumed a lot of disposable items. There are layers and bags.” He continued that the food delivery app service staff sometimes “add a few more plastic bags” to prevent the soup from leaking, causing further waste.
In order to solve the problem of disposable take-out lunch boxes, he visited more than 10 restaurants and friends around him to understand why bringing their own lunch boxes was not a good idea. If I don’t want to use it myself, can I order something for others to use?” He cited a 2018 survey showing that nearly 90% of the respondents were in favor of bringing their own lunch boxes to buy takeout, but only 25% had practiced it.
Free rental of eco-friendly lunch boxes in the pilot scheme with a deposit of RMB 20
Kelvin established Green Hub, an environmental social enterprise in February this year, which was later renamed “Re³” to provide environmentally friendly lunch box rental services. Users only need to download the app on their mobile phones to register and pay a deposit of 20 yuan. Rent an environmentally friendly lunch box, scan the QR code and return it to the designated place after use, and a special person will be responsible for cleaning and disinfection. The more times consumers rent lunch boxes, the more points they can earn, which can be used to redeem catering or eco-friendly lunch boxes for free.
He analyzed that the more convenient the process of borrowing and returning environmentally friendly lunch boxes, the greater the incentive for consumers to use them. Restaurants are also willing to introduce environmentally friendly lunch boxes for rent to reduce takeaway costs. Taking the University of Science and Technology Restaurant as an example, each bagasse-made takeaway box costs more than 3 yuan. In some restaurants, the cost of each take-out plastic box is about 2 yuan, and the cost of delivering a large number of environmentally friendly lunch boxes to the contractor for cleaning is about 2.2 yuan each. The cost of the two is not far from.
Win a bonus of 130,000 yuan to start a business
This entrepreneurial plan was selected into the HKUST x HKSTP Co-Ideation Programme and received a seed funding of 100,000 yuan. It won the HKUST Student Team Award in the HKUST-Shin Wo Million Dollar Entrepreneurship Competition 2022, and was also supported by the HKUST Entrepreneurship Development Fund. The team has accumulated a bonus of about 130,000 yuan to start a business. This year, it successfully lobbied three restaurants of HKUST to participate in the pilot program. From mid-August to mid-September, consumers do not need to pay cleaning fees for renting lunch boxes.
Qiu, a first-year student from the Faculty of Engineering of HKUST, supported the project. He said that borrowing environmentally friendly lunch boxes for free, plus bringing your own tableware, can save the surcharge for take-out. The meal is 30 mosquitoes, and it is already 30% off.”
Members take care of entrepreneurs after school and wash environmentally friendly tableware by hand
Kelvin said the initial stage of the project was very low cost, all because of the time spent by the team members. Ma Silang (Evan), a fourth-year comprehensive system and design student at HKUST, is in charge of the IT department. He said that it is not easy to complete programming within a month. 3 to 6 hours, 10 hours on Sunday.”
Team members take turns to stay at the campus restaurant during lunch and dinner every day to promote the rental of environmentally friendly lunch boxes. Kelvin and fourth-year finance student He Yongtong (Crystal) are responsible for cleaning and disinfection, and Crystal is also responsible for marketing. In order to promote the project, the three inevitably had to “walk the hall”. Among them, Kelvin decided to take a half-year break from school at the beginning of this year to fully devote himself to the entrepreneurial plan.
“Many people have an idea, but they may not try it”
He thinks it’s worth trying while you are young, “Actually, many people have ideas, but they may not try it. The cost of the test is not particularly large. There is a lot of support from HKUST and the government. Maybe the biggest expense is your time, but it’s time. We have the most children.” The HKUST campus rental program ends on September 12. The team plans to rush out of HKUST next year to lobby restaurants in the region to participate in the service of renting environmentally friendly lunch boxes. archyde news revenue to support operations.
【Environmental protection social enterprise “Re³”】
website:https://app.re3.world/
IG：https://www.instagram.com/re3hk/
FB：https://www.facebook.com/re3hk/