COAST CARDS

Seeing Opportunity

The average restaurant discards 300 cardboard drink coasters per night, after just one use, and are being primarily thrown into the garbage. These coasters release harmful toxins from the ink-printed advertisements into the atmosphere (C02 and methane). However, SFU recognized that coasters are not the only ones suffering from neglect. In fact one in six Canadians struggle with alcohol and drug addiction in any given year. Sadly, the social stigma associated with addiction leaves recovering addicts feeling neglected and is a large contributor to the excessively high unemployment rate of 70-90% for these individuals..

Taking Action

Enactus SFU saw an opportunity turn waste into worth, while empowering marginalized individuals and created Coast Cards. Coast Cards is an innovative social enterprise that employs recovering addicts to upcycle used coasters into unique greeting cards. The students at SFU have partnered with John Volken Academy (the largest recovery centre in Western Canada) to run Coast Cards. The students of SFU provided production and quality management workshops for the residents in preparation for their new role with Coast Cards. Coast Cards provides restaurants with collection bins for their used coasters and collects them bi-weekly. The coasters are then mixed with water and scrap paper, hand-crafted into beautiful greeting cards and sold online and through numerous distributors in their community.

Enabling Progress

Through Coast Cards Enactus SFU has generated $3,000 in revenue and created 2 transitional, part-time jobs for recovering addicts. Coast Cards offers a unique therapeutic approach to card making and allows addicts to gain transferable communication and teamwork skills. In doing so, Coast Cards has diverted 1,558 cardboard coasters from entering landfills, preventing 105 lbs of C02 emissions from entering our atmosphere.