More Plastic Than Fish: ZeroCo’s solution to the single-use plastic crisis, why the future of business is purpose-driven and how to crack a Kickstarter campaign.

Every minute, a garbage truck worth of rubbish goes into our ocean. If we don’t make drastic changes as a global community, there’ll be more plastic than fish in our oceans by 2050. 
Despite what we've all been taught, recycling is not the solution. In Australia, just 15% of plastic that we send to recycling is actually recycled. The other 85%? It ends up in landfill or in the ocean. We have to shift our thinking to a refill model, reducing the number of new plastics that we buy while simultaneously removing existing plastics from the environment. 
Mike Smith, founder of Zero Co, joins us for an eye-opening account on the environmental crisis we're in due to the prevalence of single use plastics. Mike shares lessons on how to crack the Kickstarter model - Zero Co ran Australia’s most successful Kickstarter campaign in 2019 - what it was like starting a business in the height of the pandemic and how building a passionate community has been crucial to Zero Co’s early success. 
Changing consumer behaviour is tough. The price - quality - convenience trifecta is a key driver for consumers. Mike shares how he thinks about changing behaviour, and how it’s no longer  enough to just launch a business. To grow, businesses now and in the future need to solve for the world’s biggest problems. Doing good and deep purpose has to be baked into the DNA of the company and their reason for being. 

Every minute, a garbage truck worth of rubbish goes into our ocean. If we don’t make drastic changes as a global community, there’ll be more plastic than fish in our oceans by 2050. 

Despite what we've all been taught, recycling is not the solution. In Australia, just 15% of plastic that we send to recycling is actually recycled. The other 85%? It ends up in landfill or in the ocean. We have to shift our thinking to a refill model, reducing the number of new plastics that we buy while simultaneously removing existing plastics from the environment. 

Mike Smith, founder of Zero Co, joins us for an eye-opening account on the environmental crisis we're in due to the prevalence of single use plastics. Mike shares lessons on how to crack the Kickstarter model - Zero Co ran Australia’s most successful Kickstarter campaign in 2019 - what it was like starting a business in the height of the pandemic and how building a passionate community has been crucial to Zero Co’s early success. 

Changing consumer behaviour is tough. The price - quality - convenience trifecta is a key driver for consumers. Mike shares how he thinks about changing behaviour, and how it’s no longer  enough to just launch a business. To grow, businesses now and in the future need to solve for the world’s biggest problems. Doing good and deep purpose has to be baked into the DNA of the company and their reason for being.