Design Journey

Do you know that only 4 out of 100 plastic bottles can be successfully recycled in Hong Kong?

Contamination is a huge issue in plastic recycling. When compressed, contaminated bottles may leak and ruin the whole batch of recyclables collected, rendering them unrecyclable. Contamination also gives rise to higher costs and more manpower associated with further processing.

Problems that Recycling Service Providers (RSP) are facing

High financial cost on transportation and storage

Contamination ruining the whole batch of recyclables

Extra carbon emissions on transportation

Problem Statement

How to improve plastic recycling success rate by alleviating the hurdles faced by Recycling Service Providers (RSPs) in plastic processing?

Pain Points

Size

Plastic bottles have high volume and low density, which require a large space for storage. In their original form, only a small amount of bottles can be transported at a time.

Cleanliness

Contamination hinders the process of compression, as compressing contaminated bottles may ruin the whole batch of recyclables.

Materials

Most recycling service providers only process one type of plastic, thus rendering secondary transportation when redistributing other types of plastic bottles to other recycling service providers. Or even worse, the unprocessed bottles are disposed of into landfills.