What if we could eliminate the 1.8 billion disposable coffee cups Australians send to landfill every year? That's exactly what Saxon Wright is working towards with Borrow by Huskee, a revolutionary reusable cup system that's making sustainability not just possible, but convenient.

The journey begins with Wright's origins as founder of Pablo & Rusty's coffee company, where sourcing trips to coffee farms revealed mountains of discarded coffee husk waste. This sparked the creation of the original Huskee Cup, incorporating this agricultural byproduct into reusable cups that found global success. But Saxon realised individual reusable cups, while helpful, weren't creating the systemic change needed to truly solve the disposable cup crisis.

Enter Borrow by Huskee – a comprehensive system where customers use an app to scan and borrow cups, returning them to any participating venue or smart bin within 14 days. The cups are collected, professionally washed, and redistributed to cafes in a seamless circular economy. Each cup is tracked through individualised QR codes, ensuring accountability and allowing each cup to be used hundreds of times before replacement.

The system is seeing remarkable success at Sydney's Barangaroo precinct, approaching 20% adoption through collaboration between building owners, waste operators, and precinct managers. What's fascinating is that many customers choose the system not primarily for environmental reasons, but simply because they prefer the superior drinking experience the cups provide – proving sustainability works best when it's also the more attractive option.

Wright's vision extends far beyond coffee cups to food containers, cold cups, wine glasses and eventually all forms of packaging. He envisions entire cities becoming single-use free through interconnected systems of smart bins, cleaning facilities, and household reuse bins alongside traditional recycling.

Ready to be part of the solution? Download the Borrow by Huskee app today to find participating venues near you and experience firsthand how convenience and sustainability can work together to create meaningful change.

Goodtrepreneur is the podcast about good people with good ideas for a better world.

Please 👀 follow, 👂listen, 🌟 rate and share 📢 to help spread the word and deliver on our mission to inspire and enable more people to create more world changing ideas - and succeed - more often.

Learn more at goodtrepreneur.co

Chances are you’ve owned a pair of leather shoes, but have you ever stopped to consider their—excuse the pun—footprint?

As we all know, leather comes from cows and cows contribute to climate change through their burps and farts and the deforestation that often occurs to give them land to live on.

If that’s not enough, the tanning process causes damage too, using chemicals with nasty names like chromium and aldehyde which, in many parts of the world end up in the soil and rivers, which then leach into the food system and yes, into us.

Alt.Leather founder Tina Funder is on a mission to change all this by creating a whole new kind of leather from nothing but plant materials.

In this episode she gives us the inside story on:

👜 How a humble handbag brand sparked the idea for a whole new material

🔬 The deep-tech innovation process, from tubs in the garage to a fully functional scientific lab

🤝 Why finding your customers before you even have the product is a great way of creating product-market fit

😬 How putting yourself out there before you feel ready is a great way to speed up the process

💰 Three things to look for in an investor

👶 The importance of finding time for family in a world of infinite to-do lists


Want to know more? Here's what AI had to say after we gave it a listen...

What if the leather in your shoes, handbags, and car seats could be made without harming animals or the planet? Tina Funder, founder of Alt Leather, has created exactly that – a 100% plant-based leather alternative that's turning heads from Australian retailers to Paris Fashion Week.

The journey began when Tina discovered the dark side of both traditional and "vegan" leather options. Animal agriculture contributes 14.5% of global emissions while occupying over half the Earth's land surface. The tanning process uses toxic chemicals that poison waterways and harm workers. Meanwhile, so-called "vegan leathers" are typically just petroleum-based plastics with clever marketing. Searching for genuine solutions, Tina began experimenting in a garage with a leather application specialist, creating prototypes that initially "looked like scrambled eggs."

After relocating to CoLab (the "WeWork of biotech") and eventually Monash University, the Alt Leather team developed a revolutionary material incorporating wine industry waste. Their vision extends beyond simply replacing leather – they aim to transform manufacturing itself. While animal hides have irregular shapes causing up to 60% cutting floor waste, Alt Leather will be produced in continuous rolls and eventually molded directly into product shapes, eliminating waste entirely.

The business has gained powerful supporters, including Tesla chair Robin Denham's family office and $1.15 million in government funding. Alt Leather recently debuted at Paris Fashion Week, signed its first commercial partnership with a luxury winemaker, and is preparing for a seed funding round to build their pilot manufacturing facility.

Curious about sustainable fashion's future? Follow Alt Leather's remarkable story at alt-leather.com or @alt.leather_ on Instagram. Within a year, you might be walking in shoes that look and feel like premium leather – but leave a dramatically smaller footprint on our planet.

Goodtrepreneur is the podcast about good people with good ideas for a better world.

Please 👀 follow, 👂listen, 🌟 rate and share 📢 to help spread the word and deliver on our mission to inspire and enable more people to create more world changing ideas - and succeed - more often.

Learn more at goodtrepreneur.co

How much stuff have you got in your life? Go on, count it in your mind…

Every book, pot and pan, every sock and pair of jeans. The couch, the stuff behind the couch. And so much more.

According to the LA Times, the average US home contains around 300,000 items. Most of us don’t need most of it, but we still buy more, using up our home planet’s resources in the process.

For 10 years the Garage Sale Trail has been swapping consumerism for community and making it more fun to buy second hand than new.

In this episode we speak to Co-Founder Andrew Valder, GM Barbara Gill and long time supporter, trail lover and TV legend ❤️ Barry Du Bois about:

👯 The power of community to drive sustainability

💥 How sparking creativity sparks change

👕 Barry's awesome idea for tracking which clothes you wear and which you don't

👩‍💼 Working with local councils to create Australia's biggest day of fun and reuse

😁 Why getting rid of your old stuff is even more rewarding than getting new stuff

Want to know more? Here's what AI had to say after we gave it a listen...

Ever wondered what happens to all that stuff accumulating in your home? With the average US household containing a staggering 300,000 items, our consumption habits have reached unsustainable levels – if everyone lived like Australians, we'd need four Earths to support us.

The Garage Sale Trail offers a brilliantly simple solution that transforms waste into opportunity and strangers into neighbours. What began as a small community initiative in Bondi Beach has evolved into Australia's largest secondhand event, helping millions of people buy and sell pre-loved items while creating meaningful connections.

Co-founder Andrew Valder, GM Barbara Gill, and longtime champion Barry Dubois share the remarkable story behind this movement that's changing how Australians think about consumption. Their conversation reveals how a "glorious accident" became a nationwide phenomenon that's kept mountains of useful items out of landfill while addressing social isolation.

The magic isn't just in the environmental benefits – it's in the stories. A Barbie camper van purchase leads to an ongoing friendship between neighbours who would never have met otherwise. A woman regularly spots her neighbour wearing the favourite jeans she sold her. A man finds a vintage bicycle identical to one from his childhood, creating an unexpected bond with the seller. These connections form the true heart of the Garage Sale Trail experience.

The initiative has become a catalyst for creativity and community building, with participants giving their sales unique names, creating themed displays, and turning transactions into celebrations. Perhaps most remarkably, about one-third of shoppers had never previously bought secondhand goods, showing how the Trail is shifting consumer behaviour by making secondhand shopping fun, social, and rewarding.

Ready to join the movement? Mark your calendar for November 8-9 and 15-16, and discover the treasures – both material and relational – waiting just down your street. Visit garagesaletrail.com.au to register your sale or find trails near you.

Goodtrepreneur is the podcast about good people with good ideas for a better world.

Please 👀 follow, 👂listen, 🌟 rate and share 📢 to help spread the word and deliver on our mission to inspire and enable more people to create more world changing ideas - and succeed - more often.

Learn more at goodtrepreneur.co