As part of our Finalist Interview series ahead of the Sustainability Awards, we spoke to Lasso Loop Recycling about its Lasso ‘smart-bin’ for recycling household plastics, glass, and metals, nominated in the Pre-Commercialized Driving the Circular Economy category.
You’re a finalist in the Sustainability Awards 2024. Congratulations! To start off, could you summarise your entry, in less than 50 words?
The Lasso smart-bin is integrating the technology of today to bring the world a more efficient recycling system. With the ability to identify recyclable materials, a space for decontamination, and even the ability to actually recycle materials - we think calling our creation a “bin” would be an understatement.
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.
Recycling innovation is moving in a very linear fashion. With 76% of residential recyclables lost, materials recovery facilities (MRFs) and curbside recycling services are focusing on AI, optical sorters, and other technology to catch more recyclable materials (according to The Recycling Partnership, 2024) - but infrastructure has a cost, and the cost of this system is part of the reason that today only 43% of US households recycle.
Lasso’s answer is a super lean recycling system. To recycle you don’t need MRFs or processing facilities. With our smart-bin you can recycle household plastics, glass, and metals. For collection, you don’t need weekly pickups with a large waste truck - collection is scheduled 3-8 times per year by app and is performed by a small trailer attached to a SUV or pickup truck.
This system can penetrate rural and underserved areas and provide them with a functioning recycling system. For areas with existing recycling services, we provide a competitive edge. Since the bin sorts all the materials through machine vision, we are a source-separator par excellence, and our decontamination features mean we don’t spend time, money, and energy decontaminating downstream.
Because we don’t mix everything together in the smart-bin, we never have to go through the headache of separating it. Our recycled material is kept pure, valuable, and ready for sale.
Our process also links brands to their consumers. With the “per-container” information acquired by the smart-bin, companies can know who is consuming their products and more importantly, how much of their products are actually being recycled. The consumer can also rest easy knowing that the bin will decide what is recyclable or not and will be affirmed when those materials are recycled instantly.
Finally, can you tell us about the ongoing development of your project, e.g. how your innovation/initiative has been received by the industry, or what the next steps are in commercialization/product development?
Our proof-of-concept prototype for the smart-bin was completed in early 2022. It has performed hundreds of demonstrations to industry leaders, investors, and notable politicians. People are always amazed that so many functions can be performed by one small smart-bin. Our collection prototype was completed earlier in 2024.
These two pieces together show our vision for a lean recycling system. We are commencing a new fundraising round in Q2 2025 to progress both of these prototypes to be pilot-ready. In 2026 we aim to pilot 100 appliances in a host community. A year after the pilot we plan to roll out the smart-bins commercially.
The winners of the Sustainability Awards 2024 will be announced at the Sustainable Packaging Summit, taking place in Amsterdam on 12-13 November. The Summit mobilizes leaders of the FMCG value chain, policymakers, NGOs, recyclers and investors to collaborate, remove barriers and identify opportunities on the road to sustainable transformation.
To learn more or register, visit: https://www.packagingsummit.earth/2024
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