The New Recycling Normal

Everyone is starting to make their predictions on the "new normal" post the Covid-19 crisis or as Bill Gates likes to call it, Pandemic-1 (which tells you what Bill Gates thinks is going to happen next). So, we thought we would make our prediction on what the "new normal" is for recycling which is that we will go from a two system solution (bottle bills and curbside) to a single, combined system.

Bottle bills have been proven to drive recycling 2-3x higher than curbside systems but they are costly to run and make consumers come back to a store or redemption center and interact with redemption machines. We believe the consumer willingness to touch machines in our new future will be lower and bottle deposit redemptions will fall.

But - using technology, we can offer a solution where you could redeem your bottle deposit at home, and put the item in your curbside bin. That way we maintain the performance of a deposit system but in a safer and less stressful way.

Sometimes a crisis makes you rethink things and this crisis is making us think that the future is one where we have the redemption performance of a bottle deposit program with the convenience of curbside - in one, using your smartphone. . That's the "new normal" and we think it's pretty exciting.