The Deposy project wants to develop a deposit system to obtain sorted plastic waste. Sorted plastic is better recyclable and also gives people an incentive to collect and sort. With this approach we hope to curb the global garbage.

A more detailed description of the Deposy system is available here as a pdf or on the project homepage

Deposy uses the properties of the cryptocurrency IOTA in combination with the tangle. IOTA is used for payments because transaction fees are avoided. The transfer and validation of the product data is handled by Tangle. This gives the plastic packaging a kind of identity that is immutable.

There have been many discussions with industry stakeholders and companies in recent weeks. Research institutions will do a scientific monitoring of the project. Additionally, there are already some offers for testbeds.

Upon implementing the Deposy project, the following aspects are important to us:

• Environmental Protection
• Secureness
• Product identity
• Trust

I will focus on these points in this article.

Environmental Protection

According to a study by the consulting firm McKinsey, more than 30 percent of all plastic packaging is not disposed of in an orderly recycling cycle, but is otherwise disposed of at the expense of nature. The experts estimate the resulting economic costs at $ 40 billion per year. Microplastic particles formed during the decomposition of plastic waste are absorbed by humans and animals through food and respiratory air. According to experts, this entails increased health risks. With Deposy a part of this plastic waste is to be recycled through an orderly cycle. Thus anyone who uses it contributes to environmental protection. There are several things that make the Deposy system stand out: