The Recycling Wall

Recently two new clients located in two different states both went live with their own take on what I call a "Recycling Wall." This concept is such a powerful and cost effective way to make an outsized impact with your Container Deposit Scheme collection initiative.

At Charopy we often talk about making recycling more fun and engaging; the example below is a perfect example of just that. This type of display makes complete sense for a zoo or other tourist attraction where you can make a big statement linking the establishment you are visiting with the good work being done using money raised from the deposits on your recycled containers. When people take a photo of themselves using your bin and then share that on social media they are indirectly promoting your venue and your sustainability credentials. Making your recycling wall a photo opportunity that people are more inclined to share works really well for the right type of client site.

Shopping centres can also make great use of recycling walls. An empty shop hoarding or any false wall can easily have a hole cut for a Charopy panel, with a mural then added to really bring this space to life. In a previous post I talked about the importance of your CDS bins being visible from a distance, and the below example does this perfectly. No matter where you are sitting in the food court your eyes simply cannot miss the recycling wall - meaning there is absolutely no reason why you shouldn't walk over there after finishing your meal to correctly recycle your empty drink container. In terms of high consumer awareness and high visibility to ensure high adoption at launch, apart from maybe incorporating a digital screen display into your recycling wall, it is very hard to beat a food court implementation like the one below.

If the space in a shopping centre food court featuring the recycling wall is then leased, the position of this bin can simply be moved to another location nearby that might be undergoing a new fitout or waiting to be leased. Whilst a permanent recycling wall is ideal, the flexibility offered by this solution means is can just as easily be moved around as business requirements change.

One of the earlier examples of a recycling wall was the one below where the client actually installed four different Charopy panels to get even greater engagement from patrons. Most people normally want to use a bin quickly and move on, but the installation below made people think about which of the four bins to use; money raised from container deposits would go towards the enclosure for that particular animal, so where you disposed of your container really mattered in this example. This was a brilliant way of increasing engagement with recycling, whilst also making it more fun. An added benefit was that is promoted four different animals at the zoo, but done in a very different way to traditional outdoor advertising. When bins can be used to promote your business more broadly in innovative ways, you are clearly doing something right.

There are many ways in which a recycling wall could be implemented to great effect across a wide range of businesses. Above are just a few examples of what Charopy clients have done, and we look forward to seeing many more creative implementations of this high impact feature in future.

Good Instructions, Great Results: Part 3

New and prospective clients always benefit from seeing what existing Charopy clients have done to ensure successful implementation of our technology, especially when it relates to delivering high adoption and frequent usage. Below we have selected a few of the approaches taken by different clients that have proven to be extremely effective.

The university below was soon to inundated with new students during O Week. Many of these incoming first year students would not have seen a Charopy bin before, especially the large contingent of international students. To cater to this new cohort the university needed to ensure that everyone could clearly see which bins were for which waste stream. From our experience, the biggest thing any client can do to ensure successful adoption of our technology is to have the purpose and instructions for the bin clearly visible from as far away as possible. Below is an extremely effective use of a decal on the ground to draw increased attention to where container deposit scheme materials should be placed. It will definitely catch your attention if you are walking nearby, leaving you in no doubt where to place your empty bottles and cans for recycling.

Another great example of using high visibility from a distance to ensure successful adoption is the one below from a QIC shopping centre. They really have got so many things right below, including their effective use of dynamic contextual digital screen content from Charopy.

Coming closer, the instructions are extremely obvious to anyone that may not have used this bin before. That point is very important, as when a person is standing in front of a bin they don't want to be forced to solve a riddle or decipher a code in order to recycle correctly. When instructions are super clear then a first time user will use the Charopy technology confidently, but when instructions are vague, difficult to read or non existent, many people will simply bypass your CDS collection and throw everything into general waste.

Following on with the theme of high visibility, especially visibility from a distance, the below example from Westfield is a good one. The Charopy bins are all highly visible to people sitting and eating rather than being hidden until the time you are leaving the food court. The benefit of this approach is that when seated you typically have plenty of time to look around and can even watch other people using the bin; once ready to leave you typically don't want to dwell there any more time than is necessary. This increased exposure of the bins ends up giving the patron much higher confidence and understanding and even heightened curiosity. All of these factors work in your favour to ensure maximum adoption of your CDS collection using Charopy technology.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/e4e9a8_525d8731f3cf44b3bde8340636fe0c3e/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

If you haven't yet read Parts 1 and 2 of this series on Good Instructions Great Results you may do so by clicking this link.

Bulletproof

Late last year I tasked with the Charopy team with one objective more important than any other: "No new features for a while, just improve the resilience of our technology so clients can have the utmost confidence in our product." The results have exceeded my expectations and I am very pleased to announce here all of the changes we have been working on.

We had a bit of fun with the video below trying to illustrate the point that our entire objective was to make the printed circuit board (PCB) and the firmware residing on the chip on this PCB as bulletproof as possible.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/e4e9a8_ab00ebb12b1642c589b572cf46937bec/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

Today Charopy is officially launching a brand new in-house designed printed circuit board, in-house developed completely rewritten firmware, plus a raft of other improvements, the vast majority of which are not outwardly visible, but which take our technology to an entirely new level of performance and reliability. All new shipments to customers from this point forward will fully benefit from this work. Here is what we have done:

• Real-Time Operating System (RTOS) to ensure a responsive user experience under all conditions. One goal of an RTOS is ensuring that certain processes are finished within strict deadlines, making it perfect for situations where timing is critical. Our firmware is now a true multi-threaded system which has the benefit of significantly improving uptime and fault tolerance within our bins.
  

• Modular platform offering both Wi-Fi and Cellular connectivity options, with smart logic to select the best mode of connectivity for the operating environment, including optional failover from one method of online connection to the alternative during an outage.
  

• Support for future additional connectivity options including IoT networks and host-system connectivity
  

• Smart power management plus efficient switch-mode DC power supplies on-board, particularly beneficial for battery and solar powered installations.
  

• Configurable container database with incremental updates to save bandwidth and eliminate the chance of database corruption.
  

• Support for algorithmic item validation, either on-bin or in the cloud, in addition to fixed barcode and/or QR code lists.
  

• Additional telemetry to monitor the status and condition of each bin in real time. This facilitates automatic system tests and automated self-recovery to maintain reliable operation when the bin detects a potential issue. This significantly reduces the need for human intervention as the bin is smart enough to reboot and fix itself if it detects anything unusual.
  

• A single platform that supports multiple use cases including Container Deposit Scheme, takeaway container reuse and coffee cup reuse with all future improvements applied to all use cases. In the past we had multiple firmware versions for each use case, but now this is purely a configuration file.
  

• Expansion capacity for additional system functions and peripherals like sensors, readers, power systems and host applications. We can't always predict the future, but at least we can be a little more ready for it.

Now, maybe it's time once again for some flashy new features! That said, the best ideas always come from clients, so we look forward to hearing your ideas for how you see the new improved Charopy technology delivering results within your organisation.