What’s In A Name?

One night, as Dave Kiefner was reading an insect book to his son Henry, they came to a section on beetles – dung beetles in particular – and their habit of utilizing animal waste to create shelter and food. This behavior is critically beneficial to the ecosystem and illustrates the embedded value in waste, even in the most unlikely of places.

Later that night, Dave added yet another irreparable pair of jeans to the “basement giveaway pile.” This accumulating pile of clothes, plastic bags, batteries, house paint, and broken electronics – Dave knew it didn’t belong in the trash, nor in the city’s recycling bin. Yet with a young family and a full-time job, he struggled to find the time to research best destinations for each item, not to mention make individual trips across town to get his items to those destinations.

There had to be a better way – for families, for communities, and for the planet. Dave and his wife Breanne started The Happy Beetle to solve this exact problem.