Only 6% of the world’s plastic is actually recycled, 8 million tons of plastic ends up in the ocean each year, 11% of all the methane in the atmosphere already comes from trash and methane is 88 times stronger than CO2 for Global Warming. Clearly, the recycling model has failed and needs a complete revamp. What will then take to change people’s behaviour when it comes to recycling? How do we become a society that thinks and disposes sustainably? For that, TeknTrash created StipraBin, the world’s first garbage can which rewards for each product disposed while providing the company with carbon credits.
To that, users use an NFC card to identify themselves to the StipraBin, which then displays a welcome message inviting to dispose. They then dispose of their products normally: a camera identifes the barcodes of the products disposed, displaying their names and finally, the number of points awarded. Made of bamboo, the StipraBin is much more attractive and ecofriendly to consumers than the usual unattractive black metal bins they find everywhere. Also, it has a screen which shows advertising, number of points awarded, etc. All these make the StipraBin a much better option for places where beauty is important, such as shopping centers, airports, restaurants, country clubs, etc Also, from the product’s barcodes, StipraBin is able to understand if the products disposed are packed in paper, plastic, metal, etc, and thus disposes them correctly in one of its 4 internal bins. The trash is then compacted, an internal sensor checks how full the bin is, and informs this to the team in charge of emptying them. This eliminates useless travels to empty still partially full bins and it thus lowers costs for municipalities. And since the products were correctly recycled the company is able to show real and accountable carbon benefits through the avoidance of methane (a greenhouse gas 88 times stronger than CO2) which originates from improperly disposed products.
StipraBin is part of Stipra, the world’s first reward system for proper recycling and post-sales analytics system. Stipra works with also an app in which consumers make videos of their household garbage and get points they can exchange for a number of rewards much like loyalty systems such as Nectar, Boots, etc. And the companies that use Stipra get in exchange valuable post-sales data they can compare with the regular sales data to understand better their consumers, and thus they ultimately pay for people to recycle their products better. TeknTrash has thus developed a working prototype of StipraBin, and to take it to the next level has partnerer with a leading tech company in UK to develop and promote the final product: Wolveshill. Led by Dr. Li Gudong, PhD in Electrical and Electronics Engineering and having worked 10+ years in R&D and product development at a world-leading consumer electronics company. He brings over 20 years’ experience in electronics, IoT, IT and deeptech and will lead a cross-function team to develop the end product.
Log in or sign up for Devpost to join the conversation.