#IRecycle | Recycling bottles can be used to pay tolls and parking lots

Although the recycling It is a habit that more and more people are acquiring, it is true that innovative initiatives and campaigns are required so that citizens do not lose interest. That is the case of Recarga Verde, a recycling program that proposes exchanging packaging for credit to pay for various services.

These types of initiatives are not new in the world. In several European countries, supermarkets give money (albeit in small amounts) in exchange for recyclable packaging that is delivered to their stores.

In the United States, there are several chains and manufacturers that encourage users to deliver anything from their old smartphones, to obsolete video game consoles, to disused baby car seats, in exchange for cash, vouchers or gift cards. .

Peruvian experience

The Green Recharge initiative is promoted by PEX, a Vinci Highways company –concessionaire of the Yellow Line–, which provides the service of electronic means of payment on the Vía de Evitamiento, on the Yellow Line itself and in different establishments.

“In conjunction with the NGO Recycles Latam, what we want with this initiative is to benefit members who deposit their PET plastic bottles (water and juices, among others) of up to 1.5 liters in Irbin, a recycling robot that uses artificial intelligence to value recyclable materials, granting automatically 10 sol cents for each bottle deposited. That money can be used for the user to pay their tolls or parking spaces”, supports El Comercio Janis Rey, new CEO of Vinci Highways Peru and general manager of Lima Expresa.

According to Rey, the initiative was born as an alternative to promote the recycling and to help the development of formal recyclers, since all the containers that are collected end up being delivered to recycler associations, through the NGO Recicla Latam, which recently also participated in a successful cleanup of San Antonio beach, in Lurín , together with the company Amcor under the slogan Together we recover the beach.

Positive results

Among the main benefits are that the recycler community has access to clean and disinfected collection points, protecting their health without breaking the chain of work.

According to PEX, from the beginning of 2021 to June of this year, more than 100,000 bottles were collected, which represents more than S/10,000 of balance distributed among different clients of the company.

The goal is to recycle just over 75,000 bottles annually.