RE.BIN is the modern alternative to the traditional recycling bin that maximises efficiency of residential and commercial disposal in the 21st century. RE.BIN’s design promotes sustainability by offering an easy way to recycle in style.
Made from 100% recycled plastic, RE.BIN is designed to be used with standard paper grocery bags for an easy, clean, sustainable recycling experience. RE.BIN promotes sustainability through a functional, innovative design that makes recycling more convenient for everyone. RE.BIN is perfect for anyone who is busy and tight on time.
Founded by an environmental lawyer with a keen eye for design, RE.BIN has set out to craft elegant, practical home products that allow the design-conscious consumer to keep sustainability at the centre of their life.
Bottles for Smiles is a one-for-one program that works to transfer the positive impacts of consumer recycling to benefit the needs of low-income families. It is widely understood that recycling has a positive long term impact on the environment by reducing waste, reducing energy, and reducing pollution. But what is the positive social impact that recycling can have on improving the immediate quality of life for people in need? Through partnerships with such philanthropic organizations as the Coca Cola Foundation, the energy offsets from recycling can be matched with donations of subsidized or free electricity units to people in low-income households.
Online metrics tools such as Coca Cola and WRAP’s Recyclometer have made it easy to understand how much energy is saved with each item that is recycled. If we can quantify the positive impact that recycling has on the environment, can we also quantify the positive social impact that recycling can have on improving the quality of people’s lives? What if we are able to transfer the amount of energy that we save through recycling to benefit those that do not have access to reliable electricity? What if for every bottle that we recycle we can help keep the lights on for a family in need?
Bottle for Smiles can humanize the act of recycling by allowing people to understand the process on a one to one level. One-for-one donation programs made famous by such brands as TOMS and Warby Parker have proven to be successful business models that are built upon people’s desire to do good and feel good. Recycling can achieve the same thing.
Bottles for Smiles One for One would be delivered through a partnership between a commercial brand and a social enterprise. For example, Coca Cola Enterprises can incentivize its consumer recycling efforts by providing matching funds to help distribute free solar lanterns to beneficiaries in areas without access to the electric grid.
Recycling can be really confusing. It shouldn’t be. This complexity makes behavioural change really difficult. It is often unclear how you should recycle composite and mixed materials. People get confused about how to recycle different types of plastic. Different suburbs often have completely different recycling rules. This leads to frustration and poor recycling habits.
The idea proposes an app that aims to give people a clear answer on how to recycle different packaging goods in their local area. The app would work through three basic steps:
The app aims to arm people with the knowledge they need to recycle well. For that, you go to it when you are confused or confronted with a new product (e.g you’re confused about how to recycle the various components of a ready meal).
Although this information is generally available on council or waste management websites, it is usually buried in a labyrinth of dead links and confusing language. This app aims to make this relevant information clear and easily accessible.
When your council changes their recycling rules, the app can send you push notifications to alert you. Equally, when you move areas, the app could send you notifications about the key differences in recycling rules.
Sometimes recycling is just not so convenient. It is these times that you ask yourself questions like: “would this one bottle of coke really make a difference? How much difference would one bottle make?” The common answer is “every bottle counts” but how much does it count? What if you knew exactly how much water, how many trees, or how much electricity and CO2 you save by recycling each product?
The idea proposed is Recyculator – an app that provides information on your recycling impact. The app allows you to scan a product barcode and shows its Environmental Impact statistics such as: Electricity, water, trees, CO2 savings and other recycling stats.