CurbyIt

Soft plastic is one of the most problematic materials to recover. It cannot be sorted in a loose form at the material recovery facilities and during the past 20 years, Councils had to instruct householders not to put soft plastics into the kerbside recycling bin. Community and Government are frustrated by the lack of solutions. Producers are now expected to develop extended producer responsibility schemes to support the collection of soft plastics at levels of >70% and feed large scale processing facilities. Recovering this light fluffy material overflows drop off locations.

Households recycle their soft plastics by segregating them into a used plastic bag and attaching our CurbyTag with a QR code to be scanned before placing the bag into a kerbside recycling bin. The CurbyTag enables efficient identification and sorting of the bag at the recycling facility and householders receive acknowledgement from Curby enabling rewards in the future. The geolocation, quality and quantity of the targeted material is reported to Councils, recyclers and industry partners through an interactive dashboard. CurbyIt builds, guides and nurtures sustainable behaviour within the community so we can recover and reuse most problematic materials.

CurbyIt amplifies the community's desire to recycle by gamifying the experience. It prevents and diverts soft plastics from becoming wind blown litter in streets, pollutants in waterways and waste in landfills. The first Curby pilot (2020) inspired the massive cross-industry collaboration that resulted in a first of its kind Kit Kat wrapper re-made from consumer collected soft plastics and the pilot has moved to full scale. Initial analysis indicates CurbyIt operates ~20 times more efficiently for soft plastics than container deposit schemes for plastic. Councils across Australia and global leading brands are now seeking to CurbyIt.

Currently most CurbyTags are being mailed to households. We have recently made CurbyTags available at retailers (eg: Woolworths and ALDI in the Central Coast) as a step towards fully integrating into the retail carry bag - avoiding the need for more plastic bags. CurbyIt is scaling up geographically and into other hard-to-recycle materials. We are currently trialling the Coffee Capsules Program where the aluminium is being recycled into "new" capsules and the coffee grounds into compost. The next targeted material is textiles. We are developing CurbyIt to empower the community to seamlessly direct clothing to charities or reprocessors instead of sending them to landfill. The scan of the CurbyCode becomes a first step in sustainable circular value chains for recycling multiple materials. The scan guides the community to the best available way of recycling or reusing the nominated material and links the community to Councils, recyclers and the brands that want to do better. With a high engagement rate through our Curby app, we have opportunities of gamifying the experience and involving leading brands into unique and rewarding consumer involvement. This is communicated through the value chain via interactive Curby Dashboards.