FloweRescue: Empowering Properties of Flower Waste
Illustration: Nikolai Jonasson
Welcome to FloweRescue, a community where flowers that are about-to-become waste are turned into moments of joy, happiness and belonging. Dive into this story to learn how community, flower waste, and sustainability practices come together to combat the loneliness epidemic.
We interviewed the founder of FloweRescue, Kati Mayfield who moved from the US, Oregon to Helsinki, Finland a few years ago for a grad school. Now Kati works at the country’s biggest flower wholesale company as well as runs a non-profit organisation, but her road to the flower industry wasn’t straightforward.
Working at a flower studio during bachelor’s degree studies in the US brought her to the realisation of how difficult and fast-paced being a florist is. “I thought that I’m not cut out to be a floral designer. You always have to be on the go, construct beautiful flower bouquets in a limited amount of time, and I couldn’t keep up. It made me very sad because I loved flowers. And still do” – shares Kati.
Instead, after some time she began to research the business behind the flower industry, especially the production of the flowers and supply chain, eventually, her curiosity led her to take a position as a Flower Caretaker at the wholesalers. Though shortly after that, Kati became distracted by the flower waste problem.
Book recommendation from Kati:
“At the beginning of my flower journey, I’ve read a book called “Flower Confidential: The Good, The Bad, and The Beautiful” by Amy Stewart. The story of the global flower production and supply chain is beautifully told by the author, describing each step of it and looking into what is good and what is wrong with it”.
Cheat sheet for you on some of what’s been going wrong and/or harming the environment.
Flower Industry’s Dark Side
Sustainability in the flower industry has always been an issue hiding in plain sight, yet mostly invisible.
When it comes to floral waste specifically, there aren’t many statistics and research that come up in the search. There is a lack of transparency and communication in the industry, the little research that has been conducted often is not available for the public eye. The question that comes up is “If we don’t know what’s going on, how can we diagnose the problem and come up with solutions?”
““The issue of floral waste has always been in the back of my mind, but it wasn’t the most interesting thing for me until I started working at the wholesalers. Imagine a massive flower cooler, filled with products at all times. One of my jobs was to clean it, checking for flowers that are no longer in condition to be sold. I got struck by the flower waste issue when I had to on the regular basis destroy big quantities of flowers that could be put into better use.” ”
Finding a solution to flower waste
Rescuing flowers is not a new concept. There are similar organisations to FloweRescue, as well as flower shops selling beautiful but not premium quality products at a discount and pre-order zero-waste flower shops.
“When looking for a solution, I immediately thought about non-profit rescuing flowers in my hometown. The concept was to take the trash flowers, sort them through, throw away ones we can’t save, clean up the ones we can, turn them into bouquets and donate them. I pitched the idea to the flower wholesaler and in a few weeks we had our first FloweRescue workshop” – remembers her inspiration Kati.
The first workshop, as Kati shares, was absolute flower chaos. It was held after Christmas, because even though waste occurs all the time, during the big holidays the numbers multiply. Kati connected through a friend to an elderly home and suggested giving a flower workshop for the residents.
“On the workshop day, ten of us (volunteers) met at the wholesaler. We started with approximately six thousand flowers to sort through. We made about 80 bouquets, prepped some loose flowers for the workshop and delivered them. The bouquets were given to bed-ridden residents, and the rest participated in the workshop with our guidance. It was a super hectic day, none of us knew what they were doing, but it was so much fun.”
Starting from the first workshop in December 2018 till now, FloweRescue sorted through more than 125 000 flowers and rescued 75 000 from those.
When it comes to sustainability, FloweRescue tackles the problem of excessive organic waste produced by the industry. They also spark conversations about flower waste and sustainability issues within and outside of their community.
The organisation donates flowers to elderly homes, youth community centres and local art projects. Monthly, 14 care homes receive the bouquets, quite a few are on the waiting list.
“We are in this exciting place right now when we want to do more, but our current working model is not scalable. What we are looking for this year is to find a way to serve more people and rescue more flowers. Many elderly houses are asking for flower workshops – because that’s where the magic happens – but we are not capable yet to meet the demand.” – Shares Kati. Currently, the board of FloweRescue is working on the solution and hopefully, soon we will hear some good news.
Healing through flowers
FloweRescue has touched the hearts of many people throughout these few years. There are 48 members of the organisation and more than 250 volunteers involved. Each of them found joy in this flower community, each of them appreciates being an agent of change in someone else’s life. Each of them has a story to tell, but we want to share Kati’s personal story first.
2020 was a challenging year for all of us, but Kati was having a bit more difficult year due to another health-related reason that touched her family.
“My boyfriend got diagnosed with cancer at the very end of 2019. He was going through intense treatments for the first half of 2020. So, there was a pandemic, there was his illness, it was a difficult year in so many ways.” – Shares Kati. – “Having weekly workshops was such a saving grace for me. There was nothing I could do about the pandemic and my boyfriend’s illness, but I could take a flower, clean it up and turn it into a bouquet.”
“It was empowering. And all the gorgeous people around me, doing the same, who just want to do something good, be generous. And I believe that a simple act of generosity could be so fundamentally healing. This feeling that I have something to give to you and I have something to receive from you. It’s so simple, it’s so small, yet so powerful.”
Note from the author:
“When we go through our personal struggles, they can feel extremely heavy. We encourage you to remember, that you don’t have to carry your load alone. You can ask for and receive help in so many different ways, all you need to do is to reach out – to your friends, family or community.”
Loneliness epidemic vs Flowers
The philosophy of FloweRescue is pretty simple. There is a lot of lonely flowers, there is a lot of lonely people and FloweRescue is connecting them. About 40% of the produced flowers will be thrown away before making it to the hands of the customers. In Finland, one-third of the population is experiencing loneliness and the number is growing each year.
Nowadays people are much more aware of loneliness because of the pandemic. Those of us who were able to live independently and construct the life in our image saw a tiny glimpse of what it means to not live that way. In Europe, in pre-pandemic times 12% of the EU residents reported feeling lonely, compared to the first year of the pandemic when the number rose to 25%.
Three times per year, FloweRescue is organising the campaign “Flowers Against Loneliness” which runs on Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, and Christmas. The goal of the campaign is to get people to think, about what it means to be lonely or what each of us can do to alleviate it, regardless of if it’s our own or somebody else’s.
Flowers are a universal sign of connection, even though they can’t cure loneliness, it’s still a reminder to both a person who sends it and a person who receives it that they are not alone.
“The cool thing that happens in FloweRescue is that each bouquet is connected to at least three people. There is a person who sends it, a volunteer who makes it, and a person who receives it. And actually, a few other people too. There is a person who delivers it, a nurse that hands it out. It’s a symbolic thing that’s happening with these flowers and it’s a story that we are trying to tell through this campaign.” – Says Kati.
By the way, donating a bouquet is always an available option on the FloweRescue website, even when the campaign is not running.
FloweRescue connects people through love for flowers, willingness to give and share and sustainability values. Each week, rescued flowers go through different hands and ultimately give a reason to smile to dozens of people. A simple act, massive impact.
For now, we want to encourage you to buy your next bouquet at a local flower shop with a conscious approach. And we will write a whole other article about it later on, so stay tuned.
