Waste recycling regulations and policies enforce source responsibility, effectively meaning that the person or business that produces recyclable waste is responsible for its proper separation and compacting, usually through use of different separation containers for different materials (plastic, tin, paper, glass, metal, bio, etc.). Municipal services then collect the waste and transfer it to recycling facilities. This service is charged to households and business that generate waste, as fee per certain waste weight or volume. Waste generators are thus obliged to separate the waste and are charged for transfer and process of this waste.
This is becoming problematic especially for hospitality and restaurant industry, hospitals, households, small businesses, convenience stores, retail industry, offices, etc. (hereafter: segment of small waste producers). This segment faces double problem: on one hand, more and more volume of packaging, plastic bags, wrapping materials, etc. is being used, which increases the need for more space for waste separation in rooms, kitchens, warehouses and offices. More space means more costs. Other side of the problem is related to municipal waste management costs. Increased generated waste also means more costs.
To illustrate , while 50-70% of the weight of a foodservice operation's garbage consists of compostable waste, food packaging makes up most of the remaining weight of the garbage's bins, but account for around 70% of the volume of foodservice trash. Similar is relevant also for households. Living trends (more households due to more singles or couples as opposed to large families within same households; more packaging, protective, wrapping and similar materials; remote shopping that results in more packaging; increasing volume of pre-prepared food; etc.) result in the fact that every EU citizen on average throws away 444 kg of household waste per year, and this figure is expected to increase.
Municipal costs for waste management (collection, transfer, processing) and recycling are very complex and diverse in EU countries and even regions/municipalities within the country. Based on the Study of Municipal Waste management in EU , conservative estimation of monthly costs is 15€+ (average minimum) per business unit or household within mentioned segment of small waste producers.
According to European Environment Agency, current EU trends in management of waste reflect positive direction towards cleaner and more sustainable environment due to increased recycling, energy recovery and reduced generation of some waste. Efficient management of recyclable waste has gained on EU priority hierarchy. Since every EU citizen on average throws away 444 kg (around 150 kg of those falls to packaging!) of household waste per year, increasing volume of waste and its costs remain by opinion of EU Parliament both ecological challenges and opportunity for circular economy growth and jobs. Our project will address these global challenges and explore new market opportunities, deriving from intersection of eco innovation and detected user needs.
Our main objective is to become leading European R&D player in the industry of waste compressing and compacting. Goals of this innovation project are:
1. To help solving systematic EU ecological problem of increasing waste volume with our technology and its products and contribute to circular economy;
2. To reduce garbage volume (by 80%) and waste management costs (by 40%) for the segment of small businesses and households;
3. To offer universal all-in-one solution for compacting all sorts of recyclable materials (plastic, metal packaging, cans, etc.) in 2 years;
4. To monetize on exploitation of business opportunity in accordance with our strategy for developing global ecological solutions.
