The Fourth ‘R’

Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle & Now Reward!

Reduce - the amount and toxicity of trash you discard.

Reuse - containers and products; repair what is broken or give it to someone who can repair it.

Recycle - as much as possible, which includes buying products with recycled content or in the case of BoxQuest someone else’s gently used boxes.

Reward - from aluminum cans to pallets to plastic grocery bags, many companies and institutions offer money back or product discounts for the return of many cartons or packages.

I think in some states like Maine, Michigan and California, one can still get a healthy refund, upwards of 10 cents on soda bottles and cans. Sure tax-payers subsidize the recycling effort, but people who take action get back a little something for their efforts and everyone, including the careless polluter, quickly gets a clean street again.

Walk the streets of Manhattan on any given evening and you will find piles of boxes, bundled curbside awaiting their destiny to the recycling centers (I would hope) or worse – the landfills of New York and New Jersey.

I actually have no knowledge as to where all these Manhattan boxes may go, but I can guess that if there were a healthy refund exchange in place for boxes as there are for bottles and cans, the streets of New York may be short one less ubiquitous paper character.

Here's where BoxQuest comes in with a truly 'green return'. Creating a medium where everyday people & companies on the move can post used moving boxes for sale may encourage more people to reduce, reuse, recycle and now reward themselves for taking the time to sell or donate their boxes and packing supplies to the next relocating party in need.

And maybe one day, we can walk our city streets box less and clean.