CurbyIt; a Waste Saving Initiative

CurbyIt is an initiative developed by CurbCycle, winner of the Circular Transition Award in the 2022 NSW Sustainability Awards.

Historically one of the most problematic materials to recover, soft plastics have become the centre of debate when discussing the transition towards sustainability. The food preservation properties of this light and fluffy material, that ultimately save waste and carbon, are not always possible to replace. Producers are seeking a sustainable way to continue using it whilst addressing environmental consequences and consumer concern.

CurbyIt is an easy and convenient soft plastics recycling program that enables households to recycle soft plastics through their kerbside recycling bin, tapping into the existing infrastructure and collection service offered by Council.

Connecting community and industry through an innovative extended product stewardship program, Curby enables households to recycle soft plastics by segregating them into a used plastic bag and attaching a CurbyTag with a QR code to be scanned before placing the bag into their kerbside recycling bin. The bag and its contents go on to be recycled together!

The CurbyTag enables efficient identification and sorting of the bag at the recycling facility and households receive acknowledgement from Curby enabling rewards in the future. The geolocation, quality and quantity of the soft plastics is reported to Councils, recyclers, and industry partners through an interactive dashboard.

Through effective engagement with participants, the Curby Program guides and nurtures sustainable behaviour within the community to recover high volumes of soft plastics, with low contamination rates resulting in a desirable product for re-manufacturers; transforming what was once considered waste, into a valuable circular resource.

Since Curby’s first trial with Central Coast Council 18 months ago, the Curby Program has commenced full scale operations and now operates in 5 NSW Councils with over 30 Councils expressing interest to adopt a Curby Program.

With over 20,000 households successfully recycling soft plastics and other hard to recycle materials through their kerbside recycling bin, CurbyIt have diverted more than 180,000 bags of soft plastics from landfill, preventing them from becoming wind-blown litter in streets or pollutants in waterways.

At current growth rates, CurbCycle forecast the Curby Programs could efficiently achieve 20-30% recovery rates within the next 3 years without costly incentives like Container Deposit Schemes (CDS) or the need for new collection infrastructure.

The Curby Program builds on the foundation of existing behaviour and infrastructure, resulting in an easy yet cost effective adoption and a successful blueprint to recover other problematic material. Driven by industry collaboration and supported by local government, processors, and producers, CurbyIt helped build a value chain for soft plastics by delivering a responsible consumption and production service innovation to the community.

Following the success of the Soft Plastics Program, the duplicatable blueprint CurbyIt has created now maps to expand into more Councils and start recovering other “hard to recycle” materials such as textiles and batteries.

With activation and empowerment of community through education and measurable impact, CurbyIt has bridged the gap between community and industry to achieve a sustainable future together as responsible consumers and producers.