Linking Surplus Production with Social Impact
A solution by Die Fairmittlerei submitted to Make conscious consumption mainstream in Vienna
The Fairmittlerei is a platform showing the potential of unused resources. Through our services we want to achieve a balance between surpluses (non-food products) and needs. Acting as an organizational and logistical hub between producers, retailers and NPOs we make it it possible that so far unused products, that would go to waste otherwise, find their way to people in need.
One Page Summary
The Fairmittlerei wants to establish a culture of giving surplus products to NGOs instead of wasting them. Producers and retail in Austria and especially in Vienna can do this via the Fairmittlerei.
The Fairmittlerei collects surplus products from producers and retailers, and distributes them to NGOs. Products can be detergents, toothpaste or shower gel for example. A lot of time, they cannot be sold anymore, due to many different reasons, such as damaged packaging, old logo, discontinued products or many more. Costs for waste disposal and storage are avoided as the goods are donated via the Fairmittlerei. This solution also has the advantage of being a lot less time consuming and more economical than direct donations to NPOs. Particularly producers and retailers can donate very large amounts of products, as the Fairmittlerei has the capacity to temporarily store donated goods before distributing them. Furthermore, companies are working toward their CSR-aims by supporting NPOs and helping to avoid large amounts of unnecessary waste.
NGOs can save a lot of money and order required quantities and right when they need it. They can use those savings for their social or environmental core tasks.
The concept of the Fairmittlerei has already been proven by organizations in Great Britain, France and Germany. In Kind Direct, based in London, has already been successful for more than 20 years.
Within our testphase during the last year we established a network of donors and customers and we achieved to save more than 4 tons of goods from being scrapped and NGOs saved more than € 20.000,-. Market research showed that in Austria alone in the sector of sanitary and cleaning products there is a potential of about 2250 tons of products which are usable but go to waste.
Funding of the Social Challenges Innovation Platform would help us to close the gap between wasted surplus products and the demand from NGOs quicker and on a larger scale. Reducing waste by helping NGOs save money.
