(submitted photo)
By Cecilia Nasmith/Today’s Northumberland
The little pebble dropped into a pond sends ripples in ever-growing concentric circles, but entrepreneur Matt Wittek’s Fill It Forward company has proven to be a pretty big pebble creating world-wide ripples.
The company began with his amazing reusable Cupanion bottle – dishwasher safe, flat on two sides for easy storage, potentially holds carbonation for more than a week. But as proud as he is of this initial product, Wittek was recently honoured to learn that another of his products resulted in his being the only Canadian among nine winners of the international Beyond The Bag competition.
This contest was led by the Consortium to Reinvent the Retail Bag, focusing on the need to reduce or eliminate that ubiquitous single-use plastic retail bag.
From Fill It Forward came the innovation of an adhesive scannable tag that can be attached to a reusable bag. Each scan registers the positive effect of reusing the bag and also triggers a donation to programs by one of the company’s charitable partners like WaterAid, Water First and Second Harvest.
Wittek refers to that scannable tag as a Reuse Tracker and, in a recent interview, noted that it can also be attached to reusable cups and bottles as well as shopping bags.
When you refill your cup or bottle, use the free Fill It Forward app to scan the sticker and get those ripples going by triggering a donation that helps in one of Ontario’s 40 Aboriginal communities that have boil-water advisories. Reuse that shopping bag and scan that sticker, and the result may be a donation to a local food bank.
In addition to charitable partners, Fill It Forward relies on corporate partners to make these donations possible. The company has revenues from its sales, of course, but this kind of support really keeps those ripples going.
Fill It Forward custom programming also lets you track what kind of difference you have made (in terms of plastic kept out of landfills, for example) and allows for friendly competitions and achievement rewards. Statistics from Fillitforward.com indicate that the company has helped fund more than 270 projects around the world, diverted more than 5.1-million single-use items, and kept more than 176,000 lb. of waste out of landfills and almost 20,000 lb. of plastic out of oceans.
Every time you re-use, Wittek said, you see the impact – the good you are doing just by planning ahead and taking your own shopping bag to the market or reusable cup to your kid’s soccer practice.
One of the newest products, about to be released, is the Everyday Tote Bag, which is made out of 20 recycled plastic bottles that would otherwise have been tossed after someone drank the water or pop out of them.
“It’s a best-case scenario in terms of how that plastic has been recycled,” he said.
“Ideally it should have been reused but, unfortunately, that is not the case. If we repurpose it and make something good from it, we think that is the right thing to do.”
Wittek grew up in Peterborough, and found his parents – Dieter and Darcy, who owned the No Frills on George Street – inspiring in more than the usual ways.
They ran their own business, and it gave him a look at the entrepreneurial life that really appealed to him.
And they put a lot of time and money into supporting their community, so this altruism also struck a chord.
“I got to see first-hand what that could mean in terms of impact over a period of time,” he recalled.
After graduating from the University of Guelph in 2003, Wittek began working for a company that was promoting reuse.
“I fell in love with the idea of selling somebody something, and it would have this compound impact,” he recalled.
“If I could convince someone to do without a plastic bag, that would save 1,000 bags a year. If they tell somebody else, that’s 2,000 bags. And if they tell somebody else – over a period of a lifetime, that could be a significant impact. I fell in love with that idea.
“This blending of business and social impact came together in my mind. We have been doing it since 2012.”
Setting up his company (now headquartered in Guelph), he had the idea of encouraging reuse across university and college campuses. It has gone well beyond that by now, and more than 300 companies, schools and events are customers. With products for sale at fillitforward,com, the company (and the ripples) continue to grow.
It may not exactly halt climate change, he admitted.
“But it’s a great first step for many people to understand sustainability and personal impact and personal responsibility around the environment.”
Author: Pete Fisher
Has been a photojournalist for over 30-years and have been honoured to win numerous awards for photography and writing over the years. Best selling author for the book Highway of Heroes - True Patriot Love
