Timely idea ticks all the boxes on food waste

How did industrial designer Kate Cronin and accountant Elizabeth Fingleton get so interested in gloopy food waste?

The women had a chance meeting in 2010, when Cronin was doing a master’s degree in sustainable design at the National College of Art and Design.

Fingleton had a business degree and was working as a qualified accountant at KPMG when she realised she wanted to do something more creative with her skills. Her cousin was studying at NCAD at the same time as Cronin and put the two women in touch.

Cronin had set up an online design studio for household products called Klickity and brought Fingleton on board to do sales and marketing.

Cronin came up with the idea for Obeo while studying the negative effects of food waste in landfills. She found herself frustrated with the lack of participation in food waste recycling. Her solution was the Obeo food waste box, a small, compostable brown box attractive enough to keep on a kitchen counter. It closes tightly so smells can’t escape. It’s also watertight, so it can handle wet or gloopy food waste.

After filling it over a few days, the whole thing can be thrown into the brown bin.

It was good timing. New household food waste regulations require segregating food waste from other non-biodegradable waste. Brown bins for food waste collection will be phased in over the next couple of years.

People from Enterprise Ireland came across a prototype when Cronin was still at NCAD. They suggested she apply for commercialisation funding, which she received.

After running both businesses for a time, the women decided to focus on Obeo. They licensed Klickity to a design shop in Dublin called Designist.

Fingleton felt passionate about the product because it could have a positive impact on the environment. She also thought it had growth and mass market potential.

Fingleton and Cronin spent 18 months researching and developing the boxes.

“We went through three or four hundred design ideas. Tweaking the boxes for manufacture was difficult. That’s what took so long,” says Fingleton.

They eventually found a manufacturer willing and able to produce the boxes for a small start-up, after many said no.

“A lot of them just hang up the phone on you. We’re really happy with what our manufacturer has done. He’s sticking with it. He knows we can grow together,” she said.

They launched Obeo in July 2014. The boxes are sold in 120 supermarkets across Ireland, including Dunnes Stores and select SuperValu stores.

Each box holds up to 2kgs of food waste. The boxes are sold in packs of five for €3.75. Every pack diverts 10kg of waste from a landfill.

The pair are building the brand and expanding their customer base. Now exports are on their minds. They took an Enterprise Ireland course to get export ready. They are in talks with distributors and retailers in the UK, and they plan to launch there in March 2015.

Obeo boxes are available in select stores and on the website obeo.ie.