The best way to cut plastic waste? Make recycling unnecessary
Paste BN visits a factory in the Czech Republic, where a system is being developed that could make single-use plastic redundant.
Wednesday 24 January 2018 16:29, UK
Most of the technological solutions proposed to fix the problem of ocean plastic focus on recycling or cleaning up the plastic already in our waters.
But a Czech start-up has a different approach: stop waste happening in the first place.
Miwa, which is short for 'minimum waste' and is based in Prague, is developing a system to remove packaging from shops entirely.
Founder Petr Baca told Paste BN: "We would like to lead people into understanding that prevention is a far better solution than recycling itself.
"It took about 40 years for Western society to get used to recycling. Now it's time to understand that prevention should be the next level."
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Suppliers deliver goods to stores, packed into Miwa's reusable capsules.
The capsules make up modular racks in shops. Customers use an app to select how much of a product - such as rice or pasta - they want, and fill either their own containers or paper bags. The empty capsule is collected and washed by Miwa, then sent back to the supplier to be refilled.
The system is currently in the prototype stage. When Paste BN visited a factory in the north of the Czech Republic, it was mainly cardboard.
Nevertheless, Miwa is due to open a fully functioning concept store in Prague in March.
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The company won the News Plastic Economy Innovation Prize, awarded by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, in May 2017, and part of its ambition is to show that sustainable packaging can be better business - for Miwa too.
"It's about creating impact through the technology - and of course that's our business, we want to sell the technology," Mr Baca says, "(while) also explaining that there (are) other ways to solve the problems than just recycling."
Retailers are interested in pioneering new ways of shopping, and suppliers like the idea of saving on logistics and packaging, Mr Baca says.
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The final part of the cycle is customers: "Today of course you can go to a shop and buy packaging-free goods, but the experience will be very unappealing," Mr Baca explains.
"It might make you happy because you're acting responsibly, but it might also require going to the other side of town, and also be inconvenient for people and not hygienic.
"How can we make it more convenient - more accessible to a normal person?"