COMPENSATION

TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to methods and systems for collecting and organizing recyclable materials, and more particularly to methods and systems for receiving recyclable materials that involve materials sorting.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Recycling of certain post-consumer materials has become mainstream in many communities, including paper, plastics, metal materials, glass, and biohazard PPE medical supplies. In many conventional systems, consumers accumulate recyclable materials in their homes, businesses and medical facilities and then either deposit them at collection centers, with or without compensation, or local collection services assist in picking up household and commercial recyclables by truck or at curbside, which are then transported to recycling facilities.

However, co-mingling of recyclable materials has proven to have an undesirable negative impact on the economics of recycling systems, introducing additional complexity and cost, as the bulk of the material is contaminated resulting in poor quality of plastics, metals and glass. Further, post consumer recyclable materials are often accumulated in non-biodegradable petroleum-based plastic bags, which introduces more waste into the recycling systems, plugging up municipal landfills with plastics that may take over a hundred years to break down which results in negative impact to health and the environment.

Recent laws in many jurisdictions including the United States and Canada have also pressured manufacturers of plastic containers who produce consumables packaging to improve their practices to reduce the use of plastics.

What is needed, therefore, is an improved system to reduce co-mingling of recyclable post consumer materials allowing for less sorting and contamination at recycling facilities and an increased volume of recycled items.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to aspects of the present invention, there is provided an improved system for tracking bags of recyclable materials and rewarding the consumer that has been licensed to participate in the system. Licensed users of the system would include consumers, manufacturers/retailers who generate recyclable packaging, and recycling facilities, and other entities such as municipalities may also be licensed users. Consumers register with the system and agree to certain terms (such as washing recyclables before depositing them), receiving user identification codes and a membership card, as well as being able to access an app for tracking recyclables (preferably including the ability to scan UPC codes). The consumer also acquires a plurality of recyclable-specific bags for sorting the recyclables before depositing them at a recycling facility. Emptied and cleaned packaging is scanned by the consumer if it has a UPC code before placing it in the proper bag, so that packaging sources such as manufacturers and retailers can track recycling of their packaging. When the consumer takes the recyclable-specific bags to the recycling facility, the recycling facility scans the membership card and the UPC codes on the bags, so that the system keeps track of what recyclables the consumer deposits. Manufacturers/retailers can access this data and provide benefits/rewards to the consumer for being more proactive with recycling practices.

In some aspects of the present invention, a system of licensing is incorporated to allow for compensation between consumers, manufacturers, retailers, recyclers, plastics reproducers and municipalities, with the purpose of reducing, reusing and recycling plastics, glass, metals, biohazard PPE material, and any other type of material that can be redirected from landfills.

Embodiments of the present invention may result in higher yield and quality of plastics and may improve the separation of plastics so that more is collected and sent to recycling facilities, resulting in less ending up in landfills, with recycling facilities benefiting from improved quality and higher yields of plastics, glass and metal to improve profit margins. Systems according to the present invention may serve to change consumer behavior to put more effort toward proper waste and recycling practices, and manufacturers and retailers may be engaged to do the same due to pressure from regulations which focus on plastics reduction and the opportunity to establish customer loyalty.

According to a first broad aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for pre sorting and tracking recyclable materials comprising the steps of: a. collecting unsorted recyclable materials; b. creating a user account and a scannable card associated with the user account; c. obtaining a plurality of sorting containers, each of the sorting containers provided with a unique scannable tracking code and visual indicia indicating recyclable material type; d. sorting the unsorted recyclable materials into the sorting containers as sorted recyclable materials based on the recyclable material type; e. scanning the scannable card at a collection depot or recycling facility; f. after the scanning of the scannable card, depositing the sorting containers containing the sorted recyclable materials at the collection depot or recycling facility; and g. scanning the unique scannable tracking code of each of the sorting containers and associating the sorting containers with the user account.

In some exemplary embodiments of the first broad aspect, the sorting containers are bags. The recyclable materials are preferably but not necessarily post-consumer recyclable materials.

Such post-consumer recyclable materials may be one or more of paper, plastics, metal materials, glass, and biohazard PPE materials.

The visual indicia may comprise one or more of colours, alphanumeric identifiers, and recyclable material symbols.

Some exemplary methods further comprise providing a smartphone app associated with the user account configured for scanning the unique scannable tracking code for each of the sorting containers and tracking deposits of the sorting containers. The smartphone app may be further configured for scanning UPC codes of the unsorted recyclable materials before the step of sorting the unsorted recyclable materials.

Some exemplary methods further comprise the step after step g of assigning compensation to the user account corresponding to the sorted recyclable materials in the deposited sorting containers. The compensation may be selected from monetary compensation and reward system points. Some exemplary methods further comprise the step after the scanning of the UPC codes of notifying producers of the unsorted recyclable materials associated with the UPC codes of the scanning of the UPC codes.

Exemplary methods may further comprise the step after step g of generating a receipt for the deposited sorting containers. According to a second broad aspect of the present invention, there is provided a system for pre sorting and tracking recyclable materials comprising: a plurality of sorting containers, each of the sorting containers provided with a unique scannable tracking code and visual indicia indicating recyclable material type; a user account; a scannable card associated with the user account; a collection depot or recycling facility provided with a scanner, the scanner configured for scanning of the scannable card and the unique scannable tracking code of each of the sort containers, the collection depot or recycling facility configured for deposit of the sorting containers; and computing means to associate the user account with the unique scannable tracking code of each of the sort containers scanned by the scanner.

In some exemplary systems the sorting containers are bags. The visual indicia may comprise one or more of colours, alphanumeric identifiers, and recyclable material symbols.

Some exemplary systems further comprise a smartphone app associated with the user account configured for scanning the unique scannable tracking code for each of the sorting containers and tracking deposits of the sorting containers. The smartphone app may be further configured for scanning UPC codes of the recyclable materials.

Some exemplary systems comprise licensed users of the system, such as consumers, packaging generators, recycling facilities, and municipalities. In some exemplary systems, a compensation arrangement is in place between the consumers and at least one of the packaging generators, the recycling facilities, and the municipalities, whereby the user account is assigned compensation corresponding to the recyclable materials in the deposited sorting containers.

A detailed description of exemplary embodiments of the present invention is given in the following. It is to be understood, however, that the invention is not to be construed as being limited to these embodiments. The exemplary embodiments are directed to particular applications of the present invention, while it will be clear to those skilled in the art that the present invention has applicability beyond the exemplary embodiments set forth herein. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In the accompanying drawings, which illustrate exemplary embodiments of the present invention:

FIG. 1 illustrates international plastic recycling codes/symbols and designation of the types of plastic that are recycled.

FIG. 2 is an example of a UPC code and such a code affixed to recyclable consumer-use product packaging.

FIG. 3 is an example of a recyclables bag including a scannable UPC code.

FIG. 4 is a prior art reconfigurable bag holder useful for embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a conventional blue bin for recycling, with sorting bags hung on the sides for different recyclable material types.

FIG. 6 is a sample membership card.

FIG. 7 is an example of a receipt that would be issued by the recycling company to verify the registered consumer’s recyclables deposit.

FIG. 8 is a simplified schematic of a membership-card activated deposit container, and a sample container.

Exemplary embodiments will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS

Throughout the following description, specific details are set forth in order to provide a more thorough understanding to persons skilled in the art. However, well known elements may not have been shown or described in detail to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the disclosure. The following description of examples of the invention is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise form of any exemplary embodiment. Accordingly, the description and drawings are to be regarded in an illustrative, rather than a restrictive, sense.

According to aspects of the present invention, there is provided a system for tracking bags or packages of recyclable materials and rewarding the consumer using the system. Specifically, the consumer registers with a recycling system and acquires bags that are provided with visual indicia indicating the type of recyclable materials that are to be placed in each bag, such visual indicia being selected from colours, alphanumeric identifiers, industry-standard recyclable symbols, and the like.

In an exemplary system according to the present invention, a consumer of products that come in recyclable packaging with UPC codes (as shown in FIG. 2) registers for participation in the recycling program and acquires a set of sorting bags from a licensed retailer, as shown in FIG. 3. Each of the bags would have both an international recycling symbol as shown in FIG. 1 and a unique tracking code that is scannable, such as a UPC code, for tracking in a later stage of the system described below. While the bags are ultimately deposited at a recycling facility as described below, the consumer can acquire additional sorting bags to increase the potential benefits/rewards accessible through the system. The consumer also acquires a membership card, as shown in FIG. 6, which is linked to the consumer’s account and the UPC codes of the sorting bags. As part of the registration, the consumer would agree to certain terms and conditions, including for example the obligation to clean each recyclable item before placing it in a sorting bag.

When the consumer has emptied and cleaned the recyclable item, the consumer uses an app on their smartphone to scan the UPC code on the packaging, and this data is stored in a central database for access by authorized licensees. In this way, manufacturers/retailers who are also licensed users of the system can see that their product packaging has been through this first stage in the recycling system. A second stage occurs at the recycling facility, as described below.

With the recyclable item cleaned and scanned, the consumer places the item in the sorting bag that has the appropriate symbol for the particular type of recyclable material. FIG. 4 illustrates a prior art reconfigurable bag holder (as described in United States Patent Application No. 16/757,498 to Sokyrka) that can be used with embodiments of the present invention. FIG. 5 illustrates a conventional blue bin for recycling systems, where sorting bags are hung on the sides to allow the consumer to pre-sort recyclable materials; the sorting bags would be removed before arrival of the recycling vehicle that collects the contents of the blue bin.

Once the consumer has filled the sorting bags with the pre-sorted recyclable materials, the consumer transports the bags to a collection depot or recycling facility. In the exemplary embodiment, the consumer can deposit the bags at a centralized depot as shown in FIG. 8. The consumer would swipe their membership card to access the deposit bin, and then deposit the bags inside. By swiping the membership card, the system tracks that it was the consumer who deposited the specific bags, thus crediting the consumer with the deposit. Retail licensees may wish to have such collection bins in their parking lots, to encourage consumer participation in the program and as a public indicator of the retailer’s support of recycling.

If the consumer instead deposits their sorting bags at a recycling facility, the consumer again scans their card but is provided with a receipt in print or electronic form indicating ownership of the specific bag and its contents. FIG. 7 is an example of a receipt, similar to those that might be generated by a recycling facility pursuant to embodiments of the present invention. The consumer may acquire cash compensation for the recyclables at this point, or may use the card to acquire some other benefits like a retail points reward card.

As the consumer has used the system and tracked their recycling efforts, such that the data of such activity is in the database, other licensees such as retail licensees can offer rewards or other financial incentives. In addition to any conventional financial benefits of recycling, consumers would thus access additional benefits that can encourage enhanced participation in recycling activities through the exemplary system.

FIG.8 is an example of the drop off location where the consumer will take the full bags to be scanned once again with the electronic scanning device that will verify the consumer’s membership number and appropriate symbol on the bag showing the contents in the bag. This is the final stage of the data that is recorded and shared with all stakeholders in the system.

The foregoing is considered as illustrative only of the principles of the present invention. The scope of the claims should not be limited by the exemplary embodiments set forth in the foregoing, but should be given the broadest interpretation consistent with the specification as a whole.