Innovation That Matters

Bower leverages crowd-sourced data to incentivise people to recycle | Photo source Pawel Czerwinski on Unsplash

A new app incentivises people to recycle

Sustainability

The app uses crowd-sourced data to inform people about recycling options while providing them with monetary rewards

Spotted: Incentives definitely help make daily chores more fun! Bower, an app developed by an eco-minded team from Sweden, makes sure that every trip to a recycling centre is rewarded. Users scan anything with a barcode to find out where the nearest recycling point is for that product. And if something cannot be recycled, that is part of Bower’s mission too – to educate people about what exactly goes into packaging their favourite products.

The app uses crowdsourced data to list local recycling options, and users are encouraged to add to the directory. After scanning and sorting the waste at home, users receive the deposit value of each item directly to their account after confirming drop-off at an approved location. Rewards come in either monetary or coupon form and can be transferred between users, spent, or donated to a charity.

The app is free to download and use for both iOS and Android devices, and the company is seeking commercial partners for dedicated recycling campaigns. Brands can use the app to build a better understanding of the life cycle of their products and use the data to engage in new ways and at new contact points with customers. Having recently secured more than €4 million for development purposes, the company plans to use the investment to expand first into the UK and then beyond.

Bower will join similar solutions like the UK’s Litter Lotto app as another way to incentivise people to behave in a more sustainable fashion.

Written by: Keely Khoury

Email: hello@getbower.com

Website: getbower.com