POLYPROBLEM report: The Circularity Code

partner organizations receive appropriate training to help them collect and process data and conduct background research on product data from brands, manufacturers, and retailers as part of their educational work and clean-up campaigns.69 The premise for this effort is an app that is used to scan the barcodes of plastic bottles and store the corresponding information, including brand, product name, weight, and manufacturer. The data is freely accessible on the Wastebase DATA platform, where it can be filtered according to manufacturer and brand and is used to show waste hotspots.70 In addition, monthly reports provide information on the top five bottle brands collected from the environment in the regions of the cooperation partners.71 Unwaste.io’s approach is promising because the database provides local environmental activists and NGOs with solid evidence to put direct pressure on specific brands, industries, and politicians to come up with solutions or effectively implement EPR measures.72 In this context, extending PET bottles to other forms of packaging also seems to make sense. 69 Unwaste.io (n. d.) (1) 70 Wastebase (n. d.) 71 Wastebase (2023) 72 Unwaste (2021) Unwaste.io Source: Unwaste 47

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