Yukon Plastics is preparing to launch a Kickstarter campaign. Will and I are excited to share what we are planning over the next year and beyond.
The Plastic Problem
Our company was born out of the mix of a desire to create and a curiosity out of how immediately recyclable plastic is. We like to do all kinds of things together, canoeing, hiking, and this felt like another grand adventure we could foray into. For now, Will gravitates toward sales, making and design and I am fascinated by the beautiful properties of plastics and all that is involved in operating a wholesale manufacturing business in Northern Canada, including the exquisite challenge of building our own material supply chain based in community.
The most exciting type of resource extraction in the Canadian North right now
We have three goals over the next three years:
- Grow our wholesale partnerships and export market
- Divert a significant amount of plastic from the waste stream
- Engage local communities to be involved in this kind of immediate plastic recycling
To do this we need to increase our manufacturing capacity and our wholesale sales in a synchronized fashion.
Manufacturing Capacity
Our current factory, at optimal capacity, can produce up to 50 pieces a day, or on average 2 kilograms a day of plastic. By late spring we are adding our Mobile Factory to the mix which will enable us to increase our optimal capacity to 100 pieces a day, but also to add larger pieces – think furniture. This will have a significant impact on our waste diversion, at optimal capacity increasing our use of up to 20kg per day. Of course, as our plastic use grows, our need to grow the supply of clean and appropriate plastic does also. We are building our material supply chain at the community level, and the Mobile Factory serves the double purpose of showing Yukon communities how our process works, and to watch their plastic waste turn into beautiful, useful and durable products in real time. Our Kickstarter will hasten our growth and positive impact on Yukon waste management.
Wholesale Sales
We currently work with 12 retailers/stockists, nine of which are traditional wholesale partners and three are intrinsically circular economy partners (they supply us with their plastic waste and we recreate it into products which they sell). We are currently working on developing custom products for a number of local organisations and companies, and are working on larger partnership projects.
Baseline Goal – 1000kg in 2025
Kickstarter is an integral and early part of growing this important part of the business. By continuing to build our community of supporters, increase our sales, gain feedback on our projects and ideas, and create interest in Yukon Plastics, we will increasingly meet our goal of diverting a significant amount of plastic from the waste stream.
We will excel in marketing, develop satisfying local employment, extended outreach to communities in Northern Canada, a more rapid integration into the waste management system in the Yukon, and offer the ability for medium and large size enterprises to meet their corporate sustainability goals through custom designed products made by us.
Summary
Yukon Plastics is in a period of rapid growth, and your support and sharing of our Kickstarter campaign make it happen. We are committed to our responsibility of being the first circular plastic brand in the North. We will increase our work with communities in becoming an integral
component of waste management and give communities a real insight into the circular economy as an economic driver within their own community.
Our value proposition is in the economic return possible within plastic reclamation. Over the next year, with the right facility, equipment and staff, our ability to capture diversion credits will grow while our profits grow. This is the most exciting type of resource extraction in the Canadian North right now. Investors, watch this space.
