RecycleMich app as finalist in the Sustainability Awards 2024

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The RecycleMich app has made it to the final of the Sustainability Awards 2024 as a sustainable innovation – a great success! Ines Kilnhofer, project manager of RecycleMich, explains in an interview with Packaging Europe how the app promotes recycling with attractive incentives, thus motivating users to act sustainably.

1. You’re a finalist in the Sustainability Awards 2024. Congratulations! To start off, could you summarise your entry, in less than 50 words?

RecycleMich is Austria’s first recycling-app to improve recycling behaviour by incentivizing users: download the app for free, scan empty packaging, dispose it properly, collect points for weekly and monthly raffles. The more packaging users scan with the app, the higher their chance of winning!

2. Why do you think the judges were impressed with your entry? Tell us about what is innovative about your project and/or about its impact on packaging sustainability.

In times of climate crisis, the protection of natural resources is an important factor. With the RecycleMich app, we have created a digital, innovative, proven solution to enable everyone to make an important contribution.

What makes our initiative special is the way it brings together various stakeholders to improve the recycling of plastic, metal and aluminum packaging. The app is an additional way of engaging with consumers and proactively informing them about proper recycling and the sustainable use of valuable raw materials. Because empty packaging is not waste – it is a valuable raw material that we can only keep in the cycle if it is disposed of properly. As of September 2024, we have currently already recorded over 2.3 million packages with the RecylceMich app.

Besides rewarding proper recycling, the app provides the users with useful recycling-guidelines regarding packaging and thus solves the uncertainties many consumers have when it comes to recycling, which arise due to the different regional regulations. Immediately after scanning the empty packaging, a pop-up appears in the app with easy-to-understand photos and comprehensive information on how to correctly separate and dispose of the scanned packaging to reach all educational and language skill levels. This varies depending on the location, so it can be ensured that the user can really recycle correctly, according to the local waste collection infrastructure.

3. Finally, can you tell us about the ongoing development of your project, e.g. how your innovation/initiative has been received by industry, or what are the next steps in commercialization/product development?

RecycleMich offers producers and manufacturers the opportunity to incentivize the correct recycling of their packaging. In this way, brand manufacturers take responsibility for the packaging they put into circulation and ensure that the collection and recycling of recyclable materials is improved. This creates an important link between manufacturers and consumers – one of the key elements in driving forward the circular economy and recycling in Austria.

We are an internationally positioned group of companies that supports manufacturers, producers and distributors of packaging along the entire value chain in fulfilling their EPR obligations throughout Europe. Our goal is to internationalise the app, and we can well imagine expanding RecycleMich to other countries – as a blueprint for our group of companies. RecycleMich not only provides valuable educational work to the public, but we also increase the recycling rates that are mandatory to meet European recycling targets.