Source Separation as a Service

You've probably heard about Software as a Service (SaaS), but what about SSaaS?

At Charopy we've been on a mission to bring technology to solve a problem that education and signage alone were failing to solve - that problem being contamination in out of home recycling bins leading to poor recycling outcomes and increased landfill. And we've picked up some fantastic clients along the way who share our vision and don't want to leave this problem in the too hard basket.

But as a company we are ready to take this technology to a much wider market and really move the needle on improved recycling outcomes at scale through reduced bin contamination. In the recycling industry we call this "source separation." Here is a definition from encyclopedia.com.

"Source separation is the segregation of different types of solid waste at the location where they are generated (a household or business). The number and types of categories into which wastes are divided usually depends on the collection system used and the final destination of the wastes. The most common reason for separating wastes at the source is for recycling. Recyclables that are segregated from other trash are usually cleaner and easier to process."

To date Charopy clients have paid upfront to own our hardware, but going forward we will be offering Source Separation as a Service. If you manage a portfolio of out of home bins and are looking for a more cost effective model for solving contamination whilst also wanting peace of mind that you'll get new for old replacement if our technology ever breaks down at your site, no matter how old the bin is, then maybe now is the time to talk to Charopy.

When you are ready to ditch the dream that everyone will read your signs and obey your nicely painted colour coded bins, then you are probably ready for SSaaS.

Partners for Change

One of the things the team at Charopy is excited about in 2022 (and there are many many things to choose from) is the Partners for Change program run by Containers for Change in Queensland. The first of a number of sites going live with our smart bin technology under this program was AMP Capital's Indooroopilly Shopping Centre and looking at the photo below you can see what a great job they have done with the implementation.

A standard panel from Charopy has been retrofitted to an existing shopping centre bin surround and teamed with one of our digital screens to make the entire setup significantly more engaging for consumers using the bin. Actually the digital screen is simply a relatively low cost wifi enabled TV. Charopy deliver the content to that screen so that when the person uses the bin they can see in real time how their correct recycling behaviour is also supporting a local charity, funded by Queensland's container refund scheme. In addition, the screen shows the material type of the container being deposited and the breakdown of material types within the bin - partly to show consumers that this really is a smart bin that knows exactly what is going in.

If you are in Queenland and wanting to know more about how your organisation can benefit from the Partners for Change program the details on how to contact them can be found by clicking this link.

Digital screen integration

This recent installation of Charopy technology by Brookfield Place in Perth may be the most impressive client implementation to date. They have taken a redundant ATM location and turned it into an amazing CDS recycling bin that raises money for charity. This implementation has used our standard panel to ensure non contamination in collection, but what is most impressive is the digital screen that Brookfield Properties commissioned Charopy to design.

With a background of working in technology innovation I love it when a client asks for something we've never seen before. Whilst we have integrated a digital screen to live data from bin transactions previously, this was the first time we used a basic animation linking the behaviour of the current person standing in front of the bin to the behaviour of past users by showing the material breakdown of what is actually in the bin. This goes part of the way towards our dream of restoring public faith in recycling, as hopefully it will educate people more about the importance of a clean stream of recycling matter at the initial point of collection.

The screen also uses real time updates to show how the correct recycling actions of all customers are directly helping the charity partner of Brookfield; initially Plastic Free July. The screen has been designed in a way that the client can easily change the listed charity partner from time to time.

There is much more we could be doing with digital screens (including much bigger screens) dynamically linked to real time data on every bin transaction, and with the range of innovative clients that we are working with today, I am sure you are going to see a lot more activity in this space in the not too distant future.

If you want to see the on screen experience (and you can't get to the Perth CBD), please click here.

November Update: We've made this product even better now with a much faster updating of the screen when the bin is used. You can see the old versus the new by clicking here.

One other thing we have seen since launching is that the ground level digital screen has significantly raised the awareness of recycling with commercial office tenants in the building. This has caused a number of tenants to ask building management if they can also collect containers for recycling on their floors to raise money for the same nominated charity. To ensure their collections are recognised, building management can now manually edit the amount shown as raised for charity based upon collections from tenants, without having to put every can and bottle one by one through the Charopy bin.

It is always nice when you design a technology for one purpose and then it ends up having an even greater impact than first imagined.