or most of 2020, many of us stayed home. The German government went as far as to run ads praising couch potatoes as #besonderehelden (#specialheroes) for staying home and protecting essential workers. But what about those who don’t have permanent and secure homes to shelter in? 

People experiencing homelessness are likely to have heightened stress and worse physical and mental health than those with stable accommodation. Personal safety, food insecurity and the mental toll of not being able to let their guard down all add up. A global health crisis only adds to the burden – it’s hard to socially distance from others without a home and difficult to follow handwashing guidelines without access to bathroom facilities. Observing that support services for homeless people were operating at reduced capacity in Hamburg, recyclehero cofounders Alessandro Cocco and Nadine Herbrich decided to use their resources to help.

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An opportunity to align with their company goals and values‍

recyclehero has had a focus on creating positive social and environmental impact since its founding in 2017. The company collects glass, paper and refundable bottles for recycling using cargo bikes. In 2018, it ran a pilot with one rented cargo bike and thirty clients in Hamburg to see if the service was something people would pay for. It worked well and, in 2019, the company ran a crowdfunding campaign to buy three cargo bikes, which would allow them to pick up recycling loads of more than twenty kilograms. Nadine joined recyclehero full-time after they successfully completed the campaign.

By the end of 2019, the company was scaling up operations in Hamburg and had hired its first employee. At the beginning of 2020, it had four people using three cargo bikes and planned to use all three bikes full time.

But when all non-essential businesses across Germany were closed in the first nationwide lockdown in March 2020, three-quarters of recyclehero’s customer businesses closed and no longer had a need for a recycling service. The company suddenly had a lot of time to look at other ways to make a difference.

Developing the Straßensuppe project‍

According to Deutsche Welle, in 2019, there were 650,000 people in Germany without a permanent home, and 48,000 people living on the streets. This problem is particularly prevalent in large cities, including Hamburg, where affordable housing is in limited supply.

Organizations supporting homeless people in Germany are heavily supported by volunteers, many of whom are elderly and therefore at elevated risk from COVID-19. During the pandemic, lots of volunteers have chosen to stay home for their own and their community’s safety. In addition, some shelters and other organizations have been forced to reduce their services due to government lockdown orders and social distancing measures.

Homeless people across the country also had to make tough decisions between increasing their risk of infection by staying in emergency shelters, or sleeping outside in one of the coldest winters in decades. “We saw the situation on the streets and realized we had to do something,” says Nadine.

At the same time as the lockdown was introduced, a friend of Alessandro and Nadine approached them with an opportunity. He wanted to deliver meals from local restaurants to people without housing. Tarik Rose, a TV personality and head cook at Restaurant Engel, had approached this mutual friend, who runs homelessness awareness organization StraßenBLUES, to collaborate, and they were looking for a logistics partner.

The concept was to deliver soup prepared in the kitchens of closed restaurants directly to people in need across the city, and because recyclehero’s operations were much reduced, it was able to help. The Straßensuppe project was born.

“We wouldn’t have been able to create a project like this without the coronavirus,” says Nadine, explaining that in normal times, the business would have been focused on scaling up its recycling services. recyclehero began making deliveries within 48 hours of being asked.

The soups were prepared by two local restaurants, Restaurant Engel and Eisenstein, and during the first lockdown, recyclehero made deliveries six or seven days a week. “I felt like Jan Ulrich in the early days,” says Nadine, referring to the German professional cyclist.

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Providing more than soup‍

The project quickly expanded to include other much-needed items. The team put together packages that included bread from local bakery Junge Die Bäckerei, sanitary and disinfection items from vegan cosmetics brand DAYTOX, masks, drinks, water and materials about the pandemic. As the seasons changed, the contents were updated – in summer, they included more cool drinks, and in winter, thermoses and hot water bottles were provided.

When preparing packages and making deliveries, the Straßensuppe team respected all health and hygiene regulations, maintaining safe distance among themselves and others and organizing contactless pickup of the packages. “We had masks and gloves, and we put the packages with soup on platforms so we didn’t have any personal contact,” says Nadine.

Some recipients of the packages simply collected their items and went on their way, but others wanted to stay and talk for a short while. “We would talk to them like friends, offering contacts, offering hope maybe,” says Nadine. “You can’t change their life forever, but you can give them good moments and show them that you care and give them some love.”

By January 2021, recyclehero had delivered more than ten thousand packages and one thousand reusable hot water bottles to Hamburg’s homeless population through the Straßensuppe project.

Nadine explains that the project’s independence was an advantage. “We were able to do it because no one could forbid us from doing it,” she says, explaining that red tape at larger organizations can slow down initiatives. Because Straßensuppe was created and organized by a small team of individuals and independent businesses, it was able to move quickly.

Alessandro says that recyclehero’s part in the project was always intended to be an addition to its existing business model. “We didn’t pivot,” he says. “We just added this to our core business because we had the time and resources available.” But even when restrictions were lifted and the company’s core activities picked back up, it continued the project. Today, it delivers soups prepared by a restaurant partner once a week.

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Partnering with the City of Hamburg‍

While Straßensuppe was in full swing, the City of Hamburg approached recyclehero with a proposal. As part of its Fahr ein solidarisches Hamburg (“Drive Hamburg based on solidarity”) initiative, it wanted to run a campaign that would collect bottles with refundable deposits, known as pfand, and donate the money recouped to charities providing support to Hamburg’s homeless population.

recyclehero was already collecting these bottles from customers and allowing drivers to keep the money as a tip, so the initiative was easy to get started. Over two weeks in June, the initiative raised €1,400 for Leben im Abseits, which helps people who live on the edges of society. The proceeds went to the association’s social fund to support homeless people financially while they take steps to help reintegrate into mainstream society.

The project proved successful and was repeated later in the year. From November 19 to 29, 2020, recyclehero collected bottles and cans across Hamburg and again donated the proceeds to support the city’s vulnerable homeless population.

Making circular financing a part of the core business‍

The initiative with the City of Hamburg inspired the Straßensuppe team to look at financing in a new way. recyclehero now collects bottles and cans with a refundable deposit for free if there is a minimum of 50 items, and smaller amounts can be collected for a charge or added to a pickup of other recycling. “We’ve continued with the Straßensuppe project and cover our costs from the pfand we collect from our clients,” says Alessandro.

The team also aims to scale the project to have a bigger impact. “My vision is to expand to other cities and continue in other places,” says Nadine. “If homelessness isn’t a big topic, there might be other things that can help us build better neighborhoods and have local impact, with the circular mechanism of putting pfand into impact while running as a service company.”

Nadine and Alessandro are also considering expanding recyclehero to Munich. The pandemic has seen a shift in the company’s user base – it always provided services to both businesses and individuals, but lockdowns and working from home have seen the business side decline, and today 50% of its two hundred customers are private households.

recyclehero’s initiatives act as reminders that there are little things we can all do to help others in our communities. Donating food, filling up a hot water bottle, stopping to talk or donating a bottle deposit to charity are all small things we can do to support our communities, both in the current pandemic and in more normal times.

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