Mary Liu, junee: combatting single use plastic in food with reusable packaging-as-a-service

Mary Liu is the Co-Founder and COO of Junee. Did you know in the UK each year, 11 billion pieces of single use plastic get thrown away from lunch on the go? Even “green” alternatives like compostable or recyclable packaging are not as environmentally friendly as consumers think, as Mary explains in the episode. So after spending time in the food industry and seeing the harmful impact of single use packaging, Mary wanted to create a scalable, long term solution to the problem. She co-founded Junee who want to make “reuse” the default for food packaging. Tune in to hear how they plan to achieve their goal of replacing 25 million single-use containers by 2025.
Mary Liu is the Co-Founder and COO of Junee.

Did you know in the UK each year, 11 billion pieces of single use plastic get thrown away from lunch on the go? Even “green” alternatives like compostable or recyclable packaging are not as environmentally friendly as consumers think, as Mary explains in the episode.

So after spending time in the food industry and seeing the harmful impact of single use packaging, Mary wanted to create a scalable, long term solution to the problem.

She co-founded Junee who want to make “reuse” the default for food packaging. Tune in to hear how they plan to achieve their goal of replacing 25 million single-use containers by 2025.

Highlights:

04.59: What is the current state of single use plastic in the UK? 

07.14: How did single use plastic become the default for packaging? 

11.25: Mary explains Junee “reusable packaging-as-a-service” 

13.39: Building a startup during the pandemic

17.57: The considerations for creating their reusable container

23.56: Reusable versus other alternative packaging – the pro’s and con’s 

28.14: Mary’s advice on raising a pre-Seed round

32.27: What Junee needs to get right to achieve their goal of replacing 25 million single-use containers by 2025

41.37: Having a clear mission and focusing on trust and transparency to build a scalable culture 

46.34: How do Junee go about attracting top people?

 

Our Host:

Craig Turner. Founder of Confido Talent, a business that helps Tech For Good startups to scale their product, design and engineering teams.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/craigturner7/ / www.confidotalent.com / craig@confidotalent.com 
 
Our Guest:

Mary Liu, Co-Founder and COO of junee.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/liumary/ / https://www.junee.co/ 
 
Our Sponsor:
 
Jobs For Good. The only job platform to find the best jobs in sustainability, impact and much more.
www.jobsforgood.io / https://bit.ly/3wjwJa0
 
Our Producer:
 
Jabriel Al-Suhaimi. Jabriel is a podcast aficionada, editing and producing podcasts for many, including himself.
https://www.jabrielalsuhaimi.com/ / https://twitter.com/jabealsuhaimi 
 
Our Content and Marketing:

Rachel Loosley, Content and Marketing Manager at Confido Talent.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachelloosley/ / rachel@confidotalent.com 

Mary Liu, junee: combatting single use plastic in food with reusable packaging-as-a-service
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