Since April 2019, Carrefour Spain customers have a pioneer mobile application available for them called ReciclaYa. This digital retail innovation allows customers to know how to sort at home and recycle the products they have purchased. They simply have to scan their purchase receipts. In addition, for the effort made by the consumer and for each recycling action, they are rewarded with two virtual points. The customer can later exchange them for discounts on future purchases.

With the App, we managed to solve two major customer issues regarding recycling:

• the lack of simple and accessible information to recycle more and better, 
• the lack of incentive when it comes to doing this recycling work at home.

ReciclaYa demonstrates the strength of its supplier ecosystem and its commitment to the environment

With this application, Carrefour Spain demonstrates its commitment to the environment and to consumers. We created a new channel of direct communication with our customers and with the brands participating in the project. This, in turn, enabled us to understand and improve consumer consumption.

The ReciclaYa application was a collaborative work with consumer products’ suppliers who have shown their commitment to the environment. They provided recyclability information of more than 50,000 products from Carrefour, Arluy, Calidad Pascual, Campofrío, Central Lechera Asturiana, Coca Cola, Colgate Palmolive, Danone, El Pozo, Essity, General Mills, Johnson & Johnson, Lactalis, L’Oréal, McCain, Mahou San Miguel, Mars, Mondelēz, Nestlé, Pescanova, PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble and Unilever.

A complete and robust technological system supports the application using the Internet of Things (IoT)

The application, for Android and iPhone, is available in 5 languages (Spanish, Catalan, Basque, Galician and English). It uses IoT technology to:

• provide information on the recyclability of products through the purchase receipt and 
• be able to know how customers recycle in real time.

Thanks to the collaboration of recycl3R and Evrythng, the IoT and smarts products’ platform behind it, we now know the recycling actions carried out by each client. This facilitates knowing recycling and consumption patterns. 

In addition, by knowing the recycling actions of each client, the incentive or reward is personalized. Indeed, we are individually rewarding the actions of scanning the purchase receipt and the recycling of each product (item or product component, since a product can contain several items that in Spain are recycled separately in different containers). 

An application that helps Carrefour’s customers and the environment

Although it is obvious to mention it, ReciclaYa improves waste management. By providing consumers with an easy-to-use tool that encourages recycling, an education and awareness program is being carried out. It increases the awareness of citizens thus generating a habit change. This educational work ensures that citizens know how to recycle correctly.

It also enables to increase the recycling rates of municipalities, helping them to achieve their recycling goals. Better recycling helps municipalities to save money by having to spend less money on waste management.

In addition to everything mentioned above, it also improves public health. Indeed, awareness about recycling ensures that waste is deposited in suitable containers. Thus, it prevents from being illegally dumped or deposited outside the places authorized for it. By doing this, possible public health problems are avoided. Fines for infractions from municipal ordinances and associated regulations are also avoided.

In the same way, ReciclaYa helps fighting climate change, on its own scale. By depositing a waste item in the correct recycling bin, we avoid general waste fraction: it is not deposited in landfills or being incinerated as they generate high emissions of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. When a waste item is deposited in the correct recycling bin, and properly recycled, 95% less greenhouse gas emissions is generated.

ReciclaYa towards food transition

Besides providing recycling information and incentives for customer actions, ReciclaYa incorporates a new functionality to help with the food transition. Thanks to the active collaboration of several suppliers that signed the Food Transition Pact, ReciclaYa already highlights certain products that contribute to the food transition. To do this, it prominently informs the customer each time they buy one of these food transition products. The customers also get 2 extra points for their purchase.

With this new functionality, ReciclaYa aims to influence the future purchase process and empower consumers to make more sustainable purchases.

If you are interested in sustainability in retail, don’t forget to check our other articles.