Recycling: it's possible!
With 490kg of waste per person in the Netherlands per year (source: CBS) and only 60% of waste being sorted correctly, there is a clear challenge in improving the effectiveness of waste sorting and recycling. In urban areas in particular, the existing collection system is insufficiently geared towards clean material streams, and consumers are put off by a lack of convenience, uncertainty about what happens to the waste, and a negative user experience. That’s a shame, because waste provides high-quality raw materials. Droppie offers a solution to this. Droppie collects waste from consumers in a smart way via special recycling shops, where consumers are paid for plastic packaging, textiles, cooking fat and oil, electronic equipment and deposit items that they return separately. The technology behind each location is the Dropbot: an AI-driven collection machine that classifies collected material based on image recognition, weighs the material, and then automatically awards a reward to the consumer. This reward can be participants keep it themselves or donate to charity. This is how Droppie ensures more and higher-quality recycling.
This is what Droppie will do with the investment
With this capital, Droppie will open dozens of new branches in the coming period: from 13 to 70. The focus will be on large municipalities with a post-separation system and on the four major cities, where waste separation significantly lags behind due to the high number of apartment buildings. In some districts, leaving rubbish next to the container is a persistent problem. Droppie wants to motivate people to hand in waste at the Dropbot in the Droppie shop in exchange for an immediate financial reward. This will also improve the liveability of the neighbourhoods.
That is why ROM InWest stepped in
Investment Manager Lotte Nolten-van Hoek: “Droppie ensures that separated waste can be processed into high-quality new raw materials. This way, recycled plastic can replace new material, meaning less crude oil is needed for production. That's not only better for the environment, but also contributes to greater resource independence. High-quality recycled plastic is currently scarce and more expensive than new plastic, as packaging in the Netherlands is largely collected inefficiently. That is why we are happy to invest in ventures such as Droppie that contribute to a more circular economy and more sustainable production.”
