IBM-plastics bottles recycling planning
Problem & Background:
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According to the statistics, more than 100 million plastic bottles are used worldwide every day! 90% of the cost of bottled water is due to the packaging, not the water quality.
In the process of plastic bottles production, it will release huge carbon emissions. And the ingredients of plastic bottles are petroleum-based. In the U.S alone, it takes 1.5 million barrels of oil to meet the demands. In addition, a plastic bottle is degraded by the soil spending 400 years. And those plastic bottles that are not buried in the soil will be thrown into the marine, becoming the number one threat to our marine ecosystem.
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Strategy：
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IBM will partner with Coca-cola and place a smart dustbin with an electronic screen on the street. Each dustbin has a Cola bottled-shaped hole for Coca-cola to recycle bottles.
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IBM uses its powerful computer system to process the number of distributed, sold, and recycled bottle information in each region given by Coca-cola. All the data activities of people revolved around plastic bottles will record in the IBM system, including the number of purchases, discards and recycling.IBM will process these data and regularly display the result on the smart dustbin electronic screen. The result will show the gap between different regions, for customers to know their efforts and keep.
Aim：
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It encourages people to actively put plastic bottles into recycling production. Data presenting makes it more intuitive for people to realize that everyone can participate in the production and lifestyle of the circular economy and realize the contribution of their efforts to the planet in an easy way. It also prompted business owners to rethink that they, as huge beverage empires, should not only focus on the production and distribution of their products but also the final destination of each plastic bottle is something they should think about.