Taking a stance, putting your thoughts and beliefs out into the world; it’s basically an invitation for arguments and, in our case, harsh words and haters on social media. We expect it. The word Jybe is derived from the sailing term, jibe, which means to change direction with the wind behind you. We picked it for our company name because we loved its relationship to water and because our mission is to literally change course. We are on borrowed time when it comes to the damage we’ve done to our planet and Jybe came to be because four friends wanted to create something that could be part of the solution. Keyword: Part.
We are four people with busy lives: other jobs, dogs, a kid, bills, family to care for, etc. We wanted Jybe to be easy for everyone to navigate and feel motivated to use. We needed it to be something we ourselves could fit into our lives. When Jybe was just a concept we struggled with whether we were doing enough, and if our impact would be felt because we know for sure that the best solution out there is zero waste and reuse. Technically, what we recommend is still part of the throw-away culture.
But here’s the thing, lots of great companies out there like Deliver Zero, M’Porte, Dispatch Goods, and Go Box are working on the re-use solution and we are HUGE fans of them all. But that’s not the angle we chose to tackle. They are doing great at it but it’s a slow rollout and, to be honest, we don’t have time to wait for everyone to catch up to what they’re offering. Right now, today, it is estimated that over 30,000 tons of plastic will be dumped into our oceans. Every. Single. Day. Closed-circuit systems for reusables get all the gold stars, but we wanted something people could take action on right away.
Getting my local Thai restaurant to swap out Styrofoam clamshells for kraft paper boxes is pretty much what we live for. Getting a busy cafe to ditch plastic utensils for renewable wood utensil packs makes us truly giddy. Heck, even getting an eatery to ask before including plastic utensils does it for us. But this isn’t perfection, it’s progress. And we are okay with that.
We set out to reach a mass audience, not alienate people who maybe eat meat a couple days a week, don’t drive an electric car or run their home on solar – or don’t know where their local re-fill station is…or simply can’t afford to go that route. A huge component of what we do is raise awareness for plastic- and ocean-related issues.
We posted about Amazon packaging a couple weeks ago and it sparked quite the conversation, which we loved. Our post was really for those people who care but are maybe a bit blind to certain issues. It was for those people who see the recycle symbol, toss it in the blue bin, and truly feel like they are doing their part despite the fact that most forms of packaging (looking at you, Amazon) can’t be recycled.
Can you deconstruct packaging and put parts in the blue bin and cross your fingers it gets recycled? Sure. Can you bundle 10 pounds of flexible plastic and toss it in the blue bin and again cross your fingers? Sure. What about saving all of your grocery store bags and depositing them into collections bins at the store? You can do that, too. But most don’t…and those are the people we are speaking to.