The start-up also offers customized deposit systems (Octopus Deposit Return System), for example in cooperation with Procter & Gamble for used product packaging47 or Softex (Kimberly-Clark)48 for used baby diapers. Consumers pay a deposit when purchasing the products and get a refund when they arrange for the water bottles or baby diapers to be picked up through the Octopus app. A dashboard informs the brands about their customers’ disposal behavior.49 The idea of networking A key challenge in setting up efficient digital structures is the strong fragmentation of the waste and recycling sector, as it is comprised of a large number of different players and interest groups: starting with private homes and trash collectors to collection points or buyers to aggregators, recyclers, and exporters, whose interaction often appears uncoordinated. This is where the Creating Value in Plastics Through Digital Technology project of the PREVENT Waste Alliance in Indonesia, initiated by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), has come into play. “Our aim was to establish a digitally linked recycling supply chain for plastics, starting with waste-generating households and extending to the global market,” explains Peter Nitschke, global director for community partnerships at Plastic Bank, a cooperation partner of the four-part project consortium. To improve waste separation directly at the source, the German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS) has developed educational programs specifically designed for private homes to promote changes toward a more sustainable behavior. The Indonesian social enterprise Waste4Change has contributed a system for collecting separated trash at the household level and for local waste banks. “The waste separation rate has increased from 20 percent to 60 percent simply because households got a second garbage can that is picked up separately,” Peter Nitschke explains proudly. Based on blockchain technology, the Plastic Bank app, which also guarantees the traceability of the quantities of plastics collected, their origin, the transactions made, and rewards given out, was used for the secure and fair payment of waste collectors. With the introduction of a new quality standard for recyclates (DIN Spec 19446), the recovered and recycled plastic waste could finally be offered on the global market through the Cirplus digital marketplace, where full traceability guarantees buyers that recyclate was procured in a socially responsible manner. “Brand companies can buy reusable material and know that, for example, certain plastic waste was collected in a specific area by a certain number of waste pickers, who were paid an x amount, and received x rewards,” Peter Nitschke explains. Consequently, 900 households, 47 Octopus (n. d.) (1) 48 Kimberly-Clark Softex (2021) 49 Octopus (n. d.) (1) KOLEKT-App 37 Source: Circular Action B.V. - KOLEKT
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