Plasticoin, the first ecological virtual currency to take care of Uruguayan beaches

Montevideo, 18 Mar A 2x1 discount on surf lessons or to enjoy a coffee, even starters in restaurants or perhaps a 20% profit for a haircut, are some of the options offered by Plasticoin, a circular economy project in which recycling and cryptocurrencies go hand in hand. Giving value to plastic waste: this is one of the premises of the project that includes the development of the first ecological virtual currency (called plasticoin), which arises from the concern for the preservation of Uruguay's beaches and the intention of linking the initiative with the world of cryptocurrencies and the 'blockchain' (or chain of blocks). And since the goal is to encourage changes in the “irresponsible treatment” of plastic waste on a day-to-day basis, this process educates and rewards. CRYPTO FOR PLASTICS Juan Rivero is the co-founder of this project and, as he assures Efe, it is a “fairly simple” procedure in which interested parties must create a user that will allow them to accumulate in their 'wallet' the 'plasticoins' obtained by delivering their plastic waste to collection centers in Montevideo and Maldonado (southeast). “We tried in a certain way to find a way to link more people in the recovery of plastic packaging, but also in cleaning beaches and a little because of the effervescence of bitcoin, cryptocurrencies and blockchain (...). Based on that knowledge a little and this concern to generate something that would involve or massify both recycling and the circular economy”, he explains. Although the project, which was born in 2020, is not operational on any blockchain, due to the costs involved, Rivero details that the initiative emulates its operation and so far has about 5,000 users. “We are very happy because every day more people are joining, there are more and more plastic of the people who remove from the beach, more and more are the amount of plastics. In the first year of operations we received around 9 tons, but in the second year we reached 30”, he says. A SEA OF INTERCHANGEABLE PLASTICS Uruguay is a country with serious recycling problems, as the figure offered by Rivero shows: of the 450 tons of plastic waste generated in Uruguay, barely 5 to 10% are recycled per day. Despite being “a long way” from generating the impact they are looking for, the creators of this project know that it is “disruptive” and that it “breaks with the scheme” on the disposal and management of plastic waste. Therefore, for every kilo of plastic delivered by users, 100 'plasticoins' are credited to their virtual account which can later be exchanged for benefits or discounts at the more than 140 companies that are affiliated to the initiative, all of which are linked for their sustainability. “We're not interested in people giving us a lot of plastic. It helps us to educate themselves, to recycle what they cannot avoid, but that which they can avoid through sustainable products, local entrepreneurs, that have a certain added value and go along the lines of deplasticizing daily consumption”, concludes Rivero. A HELPING HAND The waste collection company Taym is the helping hand in the Plasticoin project, since it is responsible for the reception, transport and wrapping for subsequent recycling in other plants of the hundreds of kilos of plastics delivered by citizens per week. During the three weekly days held in the two departments (provinces) in which the project is present, an average of 800 to 1,000 kilos of plastics are collected, sometimes up to 1,300. This is explained to Efe by the company's commercial advisor, Carlos Yosi, who adds that, after looking for different projects to collaborate with the collection of waste, they opted for this ecological one with the aim of expanding throughout the country. “The idea is, a little later, to try to go to other departments to do the seminars and make it variable, to make it more informative to attract more people and we believe that it is a good solution in several places that cannot be found to be able to recycle household waste,” he says. Thus, Uruguay's first virtual ecological currency project focuses on new circular economy technologies in the search for a paradigm shift in the processes of collecting and recycling plastic waste that allows, as in other parts of the world, a discount for urban public transport, for example. Raul Martinez