How city councils could use blockchain technology to encourage recycling

Having traveled to many European capitals I get to understand the challenges big cities have to face. Public transport, infrastructure, healthcare, safety, education or environment are some of the most common ones. Thanks to technology all of these areas of social life are ready for disruption.

Here is an idea for any city council willing to make their district cleaner, their citizens happier and more aware about recycling and environment.

Imagine a situation where by law each supermarket must provide and maintain reverse vending machines (RVM) where people return empty plastic bottles and aluminium cans. Before putting the bottle to the machine you first identify yourself by scanning a QR code in your mobile wallet app issued by your local council.

The RVM recognizes it's you and issues i.e. anything between £0.01 and £0.05 per each returned bottle/can. This amount however cannot be withdrawn or transferred. Instead it can be deducted from your council tax.

This could be achieved in a very easy and safe way by building a private blockchain and issuing their tokens.

By giving the opportunity to recycle bottles and cans we can reduce the amount of litter on the streets, make our environment cleaner, promote plastic awareness and recycling and reward those who care by reducing their council tax.

To benefit from economies of scale ideally this system would be rolled out on a national level with options to enroll council by council.

Here's an example of the RVM used in Australia where they use actual money that's transferred to users PayPal account.