Antwerp and Fost Plus are joining forces to keep the streets of Antwerp tidy. The Click project encourages residents and visitors to throw their waste in the right bin outside the home, just like at home. In this context, an innovative application has been developed. The waste infrastructure was also overhauled to enable proper sorting. By scanning every package that you throw away in the right waste bin with your smartphone, you save ‘Circular UCoins’. You can redeem it at the local merchants.
Fost Plus launched the Click last summer in De Haan. The project is now being extended to the city center of Antwerp. In summary, it comes down to this: if you dispose of your waste properly, you will be rewarded with Circular Ucoins that can be used at local merchants. The project will run for 1 year in the neighborhoods around the Meir, the student neighborhood (environment of the UA city campus), the Scheldekaaien and the Statiestraat (Berchem district) and is continuously monitored and adjusted during that period.
Els van Doesburg, alderman for city and neighborhood maintenance: “Litter is one of the biggest annoyances in our city, in shopping streets, in residential areas, on squares, in parks and on the quays. Everyone knows that. City services do everything they can to keep Antwerp clean. For example, we just started installing the new Mr Fills, the compressing super waste bins, just last month. But a change of mentality is also needed, a ‘click’ as it were. The Click app makes that easier for everyone. I’m happy to launch a warm call to install the Click app and get started. In this way everyone can ensure less litter in the city.”
On the one hand, the project aims to create a change of mentality among citizens and visitors and to encourage them to properly dispose of their own waste and to clean up litter. In addition, the Click is committed to strengthening the infrastructure and logistics for collecting waste. The local middle class is also involved. After all, the Circular UCoins that residents and visitors save when they dispose of waste correctly can be exchanged for extras when purchasing in participating stores or when visiting the catering industry. Those who do well are therefore thanked. Alderman for the middle class Koen Kennis: “A clean city, and new customers for our entrepreneurs. I call that a win-win.”
“We want people to make the mental ‘click’ so that litter disappears from the streets,” says Patrick Laevers, managing director at Fost Plus. “The Click is the missing link to achieve this and is complementary to our already existing initiatives to collect more packaging waste outdoors. This brings us one step closer to realizing our ambition: a circular economy for packaging.”
Via the Click app, you scan the barcode of every packaging that you throw in the correct waste bin outside the home. This way you save Circular UCoins that can be exchanged for benefits at local merchants. The waste infrastructure was taken care of for this. On the one hand, there are the double waste islands for PMD and residual waste such as you find in the station, for example, so that you can sort correctly when throwing away. On the other hand, waste bins were strikingly decorated in strategic places in streets and squares. Waste that is collected unseparated there will be pre-sorted so that the packaging is recovered as much as possible for recycling. Both routes are part of Fost Plus’ strategy to double the pmd collected outside the home by 2023. Additional teams are deployed during specific events or activities to encourage everyone to ‘click’.
For more information, visit www.the-click.be and www.the-click.app to download the app.