We are extremely proud to share an update on our dramatic growth in 2022, our third full year in operation. When we launched SwagCycle, we knew there was an obsolete swag problem, but we are tremendously gratified by the interest that has been shown in our industry’s first-ever platform of this type. It’s been thrilling to see the demand from companies looking to donate or recycle their swag with us, as well as the range of charities who have requested to join our platform.
Here are our cumulative impact statistics, as of December 31, 2022:
- 1,446,085 items kept out of landfills
- Facilitated $2,669,767 in charitable donations!!
Each project begins with a simple request from a company or organization looking to responsibly divest of their merchandise. The first question we always ask is if the goods can live on in the marketplace, with the goal of facilitating a donation to one of our hundreds of charitable partners around the globe. This is our top recommendation, both to make a difference in the community as well as to keep good quality items in use, which has the least impact on the environment. Once we understand the scope of the products approved for donation, we send notifications to our partners, including such wonderful organizations as YMCA, Delivering Good, Giving World, Birth Brite Foster Closet, and Dress for Success, to assess their interest. When a match is identified, we share with the donor organization the details of exactly where the items will go and how the charity intends to use these items, to make sure that the donation fits the donor’s priorities. Representing our donor partners’ brands in the best possible way is an essential SwagCycle value.
This philanthropic facilitation is some of the most meaningful work we do on an ongoing basis – and it’s an honor to make a difference in the community, locally, nationally and globally. For this work, SwagCycle founder Ben Grossman was named the Advertising Specialty Institute’s Bess Cohn Humanitarian of the Year in 2022.
Philanthropic Case Studies
One of our largest projects last year was supporting Facebook’s rebrand to Meta, the most prominent rebranding effort in recent business history. We heard directly from the marketing team at Meta, looking to donate nearly 20,000 items with a value of nearly $100,000. What made the project a bit complicated was that they wanted to make a large donation both in the United States as well as in the UK. The US-based items were at their vendor’s warehouse in Georgia, and the goal was to get them in the hands of those who needed them most, without needing to truck them across the United States, which costs money and generates carbon emissions. We spread the word, and were thrilled to facilitate the US-based donation to Atlanta-based Caring For Others via our partners at Delivering Good. Caring For Others, Inc. is an international human services organization that provides food, clothing, and a continuum of services to families struggling with the effects of a natural disaster, impoverished circumstances, and temporary misfortune.
For the UK-based items, we partnered with our friends at Giving World, an organization that works with businesses to donate some of the £2 billion surplus products generated in the UK every year and redistribute them to people living in poverty who need them to survive. Some of these items went to Ukrainian refugees, both close to the war front in Poland as well as in the UK. Rama Bhalla, Projects Director at Giving World, wrote: “SwagCycle has been a welcome and much needed partner for Giving World. They have facilitated thousands of pounds worth of high quality donations which has enabled Giving World to support communities most in need. Amazing! Thank you!”
Subsequently, we helped facilitate the donation of more than 6000 pairs of baby, toddler and youth socks from Meta to the California Kindergarten Association. The Mission of the California Kindergarten Association is to foster children’s early learning and development by promoting best practices and professionalism in teaching and advocating for high quality, developmentally appropriate early childhood education. We heard from Gennie Gorback, their board president, seeking donations, and were thrilled to support them. After we facilitated the donation, Ms. Gorback wrote, “This weekend we put on the California Kindergarten Conference, which brings hardworking early childhood educators (Pre-K, TK, Kindergarten and First Grade teachers) from all over California to share ideas and grow as professionals. As a part of the conference, we host an evening event, with the goal of giving back to the teachers. We plan entertainment (this year it was a game night) and try to get exciting donations for raffles and giveaways. The “What Can You Do with a Sock” activity asked teachers to think of creative ways they can use socks in the classroom. Many teachers took socks to give to their students to wear, but they also came up with super fun activities to do with the socks, too! Sock puppets, individual white board erasers, hacky sacks, bean bags, stress balls, and mystery bags. It was wonderful! We hope to work with you/SwagCycle again in the future.”
“What Can You Do with a Sock” activity using socks donated by Meta, facilitated by SwagCycle. Images courtesy of the California Kindergarten Association:
Outside Events and Media
Also in 2022, we partnered with Bentley University to facilitate the donation of branded merchandise to a local charitable partner after Bentley underwent an organizational rebrand. We were excited to share the story of this project at RecyclingWorks in Massachusetts’ Fall 2022 WasteWise Forum Webinar alongside Bentley University’s brand and creative services director, Rebecca Burstein. RecyclingWorks in Massachusetts holds these regular forums to bring together business leaders, sustainability professionals, and others to learn about waste-related topics, network, and share ideas. After hearing from Bentley with their request, we consulted our extensive network to find a charitable partner that would be a good match for the type and quantity of items Bentley collected. We identified Provision Ministry, a Worcester, Massachusetts-based nonprofit that serves veterans, homeless individuals, and children and families. “We felt really good knowing these items would go into the local community,” Burstein shared on the webinar. “We were diverting materials from the landfill, and we were able to fulfill our needs and also help Provision Ministry.” Here’s a video link of our talk – we start around the 1:11 mark.
During 2022, SwagCycle was featured in a number of interviews, podcasts and events. This episode of skucast is one of our favorites, and we invite you to have a listen and share your feedback! We also appreciated that they reposted our “6 Tips for Sustainable Rebranding Efforts,” a piece we wrote at the outset of SwagCycle and is still just as true today.
The market need for our bespoke recycling service – and why it benefits our planet!
One of the most exciting parts of 2022 was the rapid growth in our recycling business. There are many situations where a company determines their merchandise cannot be donated – rebrand, canceled event, corporate acquisition, out of date information. Most often this is the case when a company wants their off-brand items removed from the marketplace. At our core, we have 2 arms – charitable and recycling – which service different organizations at different times, all with the focus on landfill divergence.
We often get asked if recycling items, instead of simply discarding them, is good for the environment. The answer is absolutely yes! As trash decomposes in landfills, it releases methane, a greenhouse gas with global warming potential about 85 times higher than carbon dioxide. In 2020, methane emissions from U.S. landfills were equivalent to the greenhouse gas emissions from driving about 20.3 million cars for a year. Keeping recyclable items out of the trash can limit these emissions. About 20 million tons of household recyclables are thrown in the trash in the United States each year. If all those materials were recycled instead, it would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 96 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, equivalent to taking more than 20 million cars off U.S. highways. Here’s an article we wrote with more details on why recycling matters.
Some of the largest recycling projects SwagCycle completed in 2022 include:
- Recycling more than 20 pallets of metal water bottles for a major technology company that went through a rebrand
- Recycling several truckloads of out-of-date consumer stationery items and tech accessories for a retail brand
- Helping a large alcohol and beverage company clean out their warehouse after a brand refresh – these items generally cannot be donated to charity due to the messaging, and we were thrilled to support their commitment to the environment
- Helping many companies upcycle their off-brand apparel into items like industrial wiping cloths, carpet pad fill, insulation materials and even the shredded filling for boxing punching bags!
While the above mentioned projects were the largest, there were so many more projects we completed for companies and organizations of all sizes in 2022, and we are energized at what 2023 has in store. If you’d like to learn how SwagCycle can help your company tackle its environmental and philanthropic goals, please reach out. We’d love to connect.