Mister Bin

Project

269105

Status

Submitted

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NEW EUROPEAN BAUHAUS RISING STARS : concepts or ideas submitted by young talents (aged 30 or less)

Project title

Mister Bin

Full concept/idea title

Description

Mister Bin is an innovative waste management solution. We deploy an eco-designed and playful bin, based on artificial intelligence, which automatically recognises, compresses and sorts waste. We then collect the sorted materials and recover them with our partner recycling centres, enabling us to recycle 3 times more waste than our competitors, at a cost 6 times lower for municipalities.

Where is your concept/idea being developed or intended to be implemented in the EU?

Please provide a summary of your concept/ idea

In Europe, less than one in ten plastic packaging is recycled, and more globally, only 26% of French household waste is recycled. So, what we came up with to preserve our natural resources is Mister Bin. It's an ingenious waste management solution that improves the recycling process where it starts: at home! We deploy an eco-designed and playful bin, based on artificial intelligence, which automatically recognises, compresses and sorts waste. We then collect the sorted materials and recover them with our partner recycling centres. We want to install our Bin in European households to strengthen the circular economy. Indeed, by working hand in hand with local authorities, our innovation allows us to recover almost 100% of discarded plastics and simply recycle 3 times more waste. And all of this at a cost that is 6 times lower for municipalities, and by extension, for individuals. The city of Paris, Station F, the Pépite network and Aviva already believe in our environmentally useful innovation. Furthermore, our business model is B2B2C: we work hand in hand with the communities of communes (our clients) who install Mister Bin in the homes of individuals (our end users). Our remuneration is therefore based on an indexation of the household waste collection tax, but also on the resale of the recycled waste. We are already shaping our solution with towns in France such as Les Herbiers, Uzès and Versailles Grand Parc, which are already interested in our innovation.

Please give information about the key objectives of your concept/idea in terms of sustainability and how these would be met

This is the heart of our project. Our bins are 97% made in France and eco-designed. By increasing the amount of recycled resources, we are facilitating the path towards a circular, sustainable and clean economy. Thus, thanks to its innovative solution, Mister Bin: Generates savings through source separation and route optimisation Improves recycling performance and the reuse of our resources Promotes the circular economy and the ecological transition Sustainability of the project We ensure that the bin operates from the beginning to the end of the usage contract, typically between 5 and 12 years. Machine learning, combined with monitoring from our centres, allows us to reduce maintenance costs and perform remote troubleshooting. We aim to maintain a high level of R&D to continually optimise the recycling management chain. Our Mister Bin bins are also 100% recyclable.

Please give information about the key objectives of your concept/idea in terms of aesthetics and quality of experience beyond functionality and how these would be met

To illustrate our user journey, let's take the example of Sarah, who wants to throw away her favourite cake package. She places the package in the Mister Bin Recognition Chamber and the scanner will recognise the cookie package. Thanks to our database, we will know that this package is made of recyclable cardboard. Then the cake package will be shredded and its volume divided by 12! Finally, the cake package will be sent to the compartment dedicated to it: in fact, there will be a container dedicated to plastics, one to cardboard, one to paper etc. This is the end of dirty, smelly and fragile garbage bags and the beginning of returnable, reusable, airtight and odourless containers! In addition, our containers will be adaptable to the consumption habits of each household.When a container is full, our bin warns you and also sends a notification to your smartphone. Our logisticians are automatically informed, and with the help of today's leading waste management companies, we will collect your containers thanks to an optimised organisation. No more waste trucks driving through streets that are empty of waste. Moreover, we will leave a clean and ready-to-use container in front of your door. Thanks to its RFID chip, Sarah's cardboard container is recognised when it arrives at the management centre. The container will be cleaned and disinfected and will be ready for use again. A small safety sorting is done on the container and then it is collected by one of our partner recycling centres.

Please give information about the key objectives of your concept/idea in terms of inclusion and how these would be been met

Beyond the environmental issues of our solution, it is important for us to develop a clear HR policy in line with our values. In addition, we are currently following the Parisian Start'in ESS programme and have obtained the HEC Entrepreneurs of Change certification with Ticket For Change to learn about the best CSR practices to adopt. We have therefore structured our recruitment charter around 4 points: a) Organise an increase in skills If any jobs are lost with the arrival of Mister Bin in the municipalities, we will try to ensure their mobility by offering development and training programmes to former employees. In this way, they will be able to develop their previous experience and move on to a new recycling-oriented scheme. b) Promoting social reintegration We believe that every person deserves a place in society and has the right to develop in a decent professional environment. This is why we want to ensure a ratio of at least 15% of our employees in social reintegration (former prisoners, people from priority neighbourhoods, etc.). c) Accepting disability Valentin's godmother suffers from schizophrenia and it has always been very difficult for her to find a job. We believe that work is a way for people with disabilities to overcome this situation. We will therefore work with local associations to offer jobs that will accommodate different disabilities. d) Recruiting locally We are committed to creating jobs in the cities where our solution and our management centres will be developed. As a reminder, the deployment of Mister Bin in a town of 15,000 inhabitants involves the systematic recruitment of at least 3 drivers and 2 centre managers.

Please explain the innovative character of your concept/ idea

The current waste management organisation was set up more than 30 years ago with the technology of the time. Since then, it has continued to improve, creating new sorting and recycling techniques. However, they can never be as effective as a well-done source separation. In the age of connected objects, new technologies allow us to sort at source. Can a fax, the most efficient solution at the time, compete with an e-mail? Our technology is based on artificial intelligence for shape, text and barcode recognition that we are developing with Google. With our technology, we can recognise any recyclable waste in less than 3.2 seconds and route it to the corresponding sorting bin. With the help of our waste collection routes optimised by an intelligent GPS, we can send European citizens' waste directly to the recycling centre, without going through any sorting centre. Mister Bin also reduces the number of waste collections, allowing a 65% reduction in CO2 emissions with fewer trucks on the road. 

Please detail the plans you have for the further development, promotion and/or implementation of your concept/idea, with a particular attention to the initiatives to be taken before May 2022

The year 2020 was marked by the prototyping phase of our eco-designed solution, 97% of which is manufactured in France. We are currently carrying out the pre-industrialisation phase of Mister Bin with the support of the Makerz and Baracoda design offices. In addition, we have built our business plan with the help of the BPi and the Makesense incubator. At the same time, we are activating various financing levers for 2021; we are in the process of obtaining the “Paris Innovation Amorçage” grant, which will finance our industrialisation phase to the tune of €29,000. We received €1,600 by winning the Pépite Hésam Booster competition and a crowdfunding campaign is being prepared with WeDoGood. In addition, a grant from the New European Bauhaus would allow us to finance 17% of the installation of our beta-test phase. In October, we will launch a 3-month test phase in the Plateau Saint-Antoine district of Le Chesnay, a city in France. This will allow us to test different technologies with 235 people, but also to become aware of the real habits and needs of users. We will be able to deploy our solution in February 2022 in a town of 8,100 inhabitants, to recycle 2.7 million kg of waste annually.

By ticking this box, you declare that all the information provided in this form is factually correct, that the proposed concept/idea has not been proposed for the New European Bauhaus Rising Stars Awards more than once in the same category.