SAN MATEO (KPIX 5) — For all the time and money put into recycling, only 20% of material is ever actually recycled. The system isn’t working. But at an incubator lab in San Mateo, they’re unveiling technology that may be the future of “home recycling.”
When you throw items into your recycling bin, they instantly lose most of their value. That’s because the process of converting them back to a raw material is so difficult. Much of what we recycle is sent to large facilities where it is separated, baled up and shipped overseas for reprocessing.
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“The amount of single-use plastics, the way the people have changed their use and interaction, the current system can’t cope,” said Phil Sanders. “So, this machine addresses that issue.”
Sanders is Chief Technology Officer of a startup company developing a product called the “Lasso,” a home appliance that converts containers of all different types back into the raw material from which they were made. The current concept device is the size of a small vending machine, but the finished product will be more compact – about the size of a dishwasher. Items are loaded into the Lasso where they are scanned, identified, steam-cleaned, dried, and shredded into a pure raw form prized by manufacturers. Then each different material is deposited into separate bins.
“If the materials are all mixed together, as they are in your blue bin, the value is very low,” said Sanders. “Once we separate them, process them and they’re pure and segregated, the value is significant.”
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That added value, lost in the current system, is enough for Lasso to offer an entirely new recycling infrastructure, including curbside pickup of the material.
“The financial modeling we’ve done shows that we can pay for it, pay for a scheduled collection, so the householder doesn’t have to pay for it,” he said. “The material an average household produces per year covers the cost and allows some to go back to the household. So, you’ll be paid for recycling.”
Initially, the device and its collection system will exist only in the Bay Area as a pilot program. Current recycling systems aren’t equipped to handle the material. But the idea is to build a market for locally-produced plastic, glass and aluminum raw material, as a model for the rest of the country, and the world, to follow. The program is new but it’s on a short timeline. The first test devices will be rolled out to 100 homes in 2023. Retail sales are expected to begin the following year.
“So, anyone who is in the area will be able to purchase a Lasso and will be able to immediately start recycling their products in a closed-loop fashion through our system,” said Marketing Manager Dominique Leonard. “So, once they wheel it to the curb, Lasso will just be able to pick it up and sell it directly back to the manufacturers.”
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And maybe prevent 80% of it from ending up in a landfill.
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