THE FIRST MILE
likely to follow the deliberations of COP26 , but they , and the service they provide to the recycling industry , are important in solving the issues that are being discussed there .
In the past , businesses have fallen into the trap of treating sustainability as solely a CSR issue , and have addressed it only because of the wish to tell a good story to their shareholders in the Annual Report . In short , they ' ve resorted to greenwashing .. As for climate change , until recently , some were unsure whether , if it existed at all , really felt this was a compliance issue and waited for government regulations to catch up . Today change is being driven at the grass roots level , the employees and the supply chain , and at last being taken seriously at board level . “ Though the work we do is clearly human-centred and focused , Halling emphasises , “ it also drives business performance . Investing in the human rights of raw materials collectors in the first mile means greater quantity and higher quality of recycled material for our brands . I think we ' re getting to a point where this isn ' t just a nice-tohave , but a part of core business strategy .”
To this Vivien Luk gives passionate endorsement . “ They are all sitting at COP26 and trying to come up with solutions . These individuals are already on the ground , solving the problem in the real world . Either we get behind them and support them and their work , making it secure and dignified or we continue to spend millions and trillions of dollars on solutions that are not going to yield the outcomes that these global brands , are trying to reach . By partnering with us they know that their dollars are always going to be put behind the collectors network .”
Technology at ground level The ability to communicate quickly , easily and globally has made a big difference to the effectiveness of the impact team and managers at First Mile , but technology is making things a lot easier for the collectors too , particularly in the rapid growth of mobile money transactions , that enable faster , secure payment by the recycling centre owners to the families that collect the material , allowing First Mile to make relief payments during the pandemic . It is a necessary step to making informal waste collectors become entrepreneurs .
But in this context technology can be a two-edged sword . “ I do think that there is often almost too much faith put in technology as a traceability or solutions-oriented tool ,” says Halling , “ especially in supply chain management at this level . When people are picking up plastic waste and earning $ 3 a day , it is going to require some incentive for them to share their personal data . I would like to see the technology tools that do exist out there , do more than point out problems or issues in the supply chain and do more to actually drive solutions . We see a disconnect there with many of the tools and platforms that are available .”
“ INVESTING IN THE HUMAN RIGHTS OF RAW MATERIALS COLLECTORS IN THE FIRST MILE MEANS GREATER QUANTITY AND HIGHER QUALITY OF RECYCLED MATERIAL FOR OUR BRANDS ”
KELSEY HALLING HEAD OF PARTNERSHIPS , THE FIRST MILE
20 firstmilemade . com