Sondre Zakariassen Ranum

Our idea sprung out from the so-called "Pant" system that currently exists in Norway. This system stipulates is that the price of beverages either sold in plastic bottles or aluminium cans are inflated by ~€0,1-0,25 per item as a deposit, which you can receive back once the items are returned to a "Pant"-machine to be recycled. Our project, "Pant It!", is in essence a project to modernize, digitalize, privatize and expand the "Pant" system. "Pant It!" will achieve this by the development of an app, in which the sum of all the items recycled will be stored. This sum will act as a sort of "token", which you will be able to redeem for either coupons or small prizes, in contrast with the direct cash payback scheme the current system uses. Furthermore, "Pant It!" wishes to expand the number of accepted items to other forms of plastic and metal which can have a printed barcode on them, allowing for them to be automatically sorted into which sort of item they are, which the technology for this already existis and is in use. After the sorting is done, the designated sorts of plastic and metal would be sold to partners able to fully utilize and capture the value of these items, bringing them into a circular economy. The ultimate goal for "Pant It!" is to make recycling seem worthwhile for consumers, leading to less plastic waste ending up in the ocean, and the basis of a circular economy being formed. I have linked our YouTube video presentation of "Pant It!" (put on subtitles).