Green-Track, with the digital waste ID those who recycle save money

From today ‘chi recycle save‘ thanks to Green-Trackil Italian patent which gives adigital identity to waste to turn them into a economic asset. The container automatically presents its “identity card” to the recovery centers: origin, chemical composition and degree of purity, allowing a perfect selection. No additional labels, chips or external tags, as they can contaminate the material and often come off. The packaging itself becomes a real “information support”.

A paradigm shift in the ‘war on plastic’ that overcomes the logic of ‘the polluter pays’, and transforms the anonymous refusal in a precious digital assetcreating a virtuous circle in which the gain, through a system of direct rewardis equally distributed among the consumerindustry and protecting the planet. There traceability it is no longer a cost imposed by legislation, but a lever of economic value.

What is Green-Track and how does it work

Green-Track it’s a technological project which introduces a system of certified traceability of the containers (plastic, glass, aluminium) along the entire life cyclefrom production to post-consumer recovery. And it does so by attributing one to each product unique digital identityobtained through a structural marking can be integrated into normals industrial processes.

The intuition behind innovation

The idea was born from the intuition of a Sicilian professor: Rosario Melissa, engineer and secondary school teacher, who deals with technological innovation applied to public services and infrastructures.

“During a walk along the seafront, observing the numerous abandoned containers beyond the coastal wall – says Melissa – I asked myself a question: why do objects produced and distributed with highly controlled industrial processes suddenly become anonymous when they enter the waste phase?”.

Filling the circular economy blind spot

From this reflection it takes shape Green-Trackwith the aim of filling the information “blind spot” ofcircular economyor a ‘black hole’ into which the industrial container ends up when it is ‘used’ and ‘disposed of’. In fact, along the way from the purchase to the sorting center, all information on theproduct identity and the absence of certain data prevents a really efficient recycling. The bottle becomes ‘anonymous’ after consumption and this limits the efficiency of the systems collection and recoverythe quality of recycled material and the possibility of certifying the correct end of life of the products. The lack of certain data today represents the main obstacle to the implementation of the new European Packaging Regulation (PPWR)which imposes increasingly stringent recycling and reuse targets. Green-Track revolutionizes this logic and makes every container recognizable and verifiable even after use, creating a information continuity between production, consumption and recovery.

Economic advantages and direct rewards

The traceability it works in completely anonymous mode. On a voluntary basis, the consumer can associate, or not, his identity with the product to access services or incentives, therefore in full compliance with the privacy. Today the citizen who recycle well it does the community a favor but does not gain any from it personal economic advantage. Green-Trackinstead, it allows a part of this ‘value’ to be redistributed to those who allowed the recovery. And the economic return is made possible through a form of direct rewardsort of ambientale cashback.

“Since each container is tracked and has adigital identitywhen the citizen gives it correctly, the system can recognize him as a immediate incentive. It can be a credit on a card, a discount on spending or a direct refund. It is the digital evolution of ‘returnable blank‘”, explains Melissa. Or you can get a reduction in the Department. “Thank you delivery certificate datathe Municipality can finally apply a ‘punctual rate‘real. If I track that I have correctly recycled 90% of my packaging, the system Green-Track provides certified proof to obtain one reduction on waste tax. I pay less because I demonstrate that I produce less undifferentiated waste”, the professor further observes.

Future prospects and global standard

Green-Track it is a project conceived in Sicily, but conceived from the beginning for one global industrial scale. The solution has already been presented in technical and industrial contexts in the sector beverage e packaging and is currently being evaluated and compared with operators in the sector. The ambition of Green-Track it is long term. The project aims to become for thecircular economy what the seat belt was for the automotive sector: an innovation initially perceived as optional, but destined to become one system standardsprogressively integrated into industrial processes and regulatory frameworks.