When technology allows you to exchange plastic packaging for prizes

The Loop co. has teamed up with the Do Velho Se Faz Novo project to develop the technology behind the app that allows Portuguese people to recycle plastic packaging and exchange it for prizes.

This app works through the automatic packaging collection machines, where citizens could already receive a receipt for the total amount corresponding to the plastic deposited. Now, they can place packages, such as water bottles, and accumulate points. Then, these points can then be exchanged for various sustainable and reconditioned prizes, for example:

● iPhones and Macbooks;

● Electric scooter;

● Drones;

● Child care items;

● Netflix or Spotify subscriptions;

● Ticketline Tickets;

● Glovo code;

● NOS cinemas voucher. These are just some of the prizes available for exchange. The app is available here and can be used in 33 supermarkets Continente, Pingo Doce, Auchan, Supercor and Intermarché.

In the case of the Lisbon metropolitan area, which includes the initiative in 10 supermarkets, it will also be possible, in addition to the prizes, to make donations to Ajuda de Berço and Associação Mais Proximidade Melhor Vida. This platform is being implemented in partnership with the project Bebidas+Circulares from APED, the Associação Portuguesa de Empresas de Distribuição (Portuguese Association of Distribution Companies), and Do Velho se Faz Novo (From Old is Made New) from PROBEB, Associação Portuguesa das Bebidas Refrescantes Não Alcoólicas (Portuguese Association of Non-Alcoholic Refreshment Beverages). These projects are in an experimental phase, with the goal of making the plastic bottle collecting system universal as of the second half of 2022.