Project description
Reducing paper towel waste in public restrooms
Compared to hot air hand dryers, paper towels are the cheapest solution in public restrooms. But this is only in terms of initial investment. Paper towels produce a large amount of waste. Up to 40 % of all waste volumes from public or commercial buildings is generated by paper towels. Using regular waste bins also means that plastic bags are thrown away before the volumetric potential is fully utilised. The EU-funded COMPAX – SWC is developing a smart waste compactor for paper waste. This efficient, cost-saving and more environmentally friendly solution reduces the volume of paper towel waste up to 10 times. It will also reduce the number of plastic bags used. The project is targeting spaces with high-traffic restrooms such as office buildings, hospitals, airports and restaurants.
Objective
Accumulation of paper towels in public restrooms result in poor waste disposal utilization and waste overflow, leaving the room unpleasant and filthy for the user. Today, as much as 20–40% of all waste volumes originated from public or commercial buildings are generated by paper towels. Using regular waste bins, the plastic bags are disposed prematurely, i.e. before the volumetric potential is fully utilized. This gives rise to unnecessarily large quantities of plastic bags getting expended, containing more air than paper towels. Frequent disposal of waste bags results in large costs associated with cleaning and waste management of indoor public areas.
Compax develops a state-of-the-art smart waste compactor (SWC) for paper waste, which will make indoor waste management more efficient, cost-saving and more environmentally friendly. The patent-pending technology of the SWC reduces the volume of paper towel waste up to 10 times, while at the same time collecting valuable information from sensors to be visualized. The SWC will improve both the utilization of volume in the waste bins implying reduced number of plastic bags consumed, and enhance and optimize the working experience for building operators. The compositions of the technological aspects result in a new product that is not present in the market and is at least three times cheaper and four times the weight of existing solutions.
Compax’s target markets comprises three market segments; office buildings, hospitals and educational institutions. Commonly, they all have large building areas, complex logistics and huge quantities of restrooms. Customers usually withhold hundreds to thousands of restrooms which have waste bins that must be emptied one to three times a day. Beside these target markets, other areas with high traffic restrooms such as gas stations, airports, restaurants and bars are considered potential markets in a long-term perspective.
Fields of science
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1Coordinator
1366 LYSAKER
Norway
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.