Zero-waste retailer built on reused boxes, deliberate small scale

At the Reset Retail conference in Oeiras, Mind The Trash founder Catarina Matos described a business model built on reuse rather than growth for its own sake. Founded in 2017 as Portugal's first Zero Waste-inspired online store, the company reuses over 200,000 cardboard boxes and 1,000 plastic packages donated by partners, and runs collection schemes for corks, umbrellas and electronics. Matos also highlighted the digital footprint of e-commerce, saying her site emits far less CO2 per visit than a competitor's, and argued that businesses need not keep expanding to have impact, favouring controlled scale and collaboration over volume-driven growth.