WASTED

The WASTED app helps users to live a plastic conscious lifestyle, rewarding them with sustainable products at accessible prices.

WASTED presents a tool to change many people’s approach toward plastic consumption: a platform to reward citizens when refusing to use and purchase virgin plastic. Rewards are monetary discounts, which can be used to purchase only circular products at a lower price. With WASTED, citizens can go through a programme to change their consumption habits towards a plastic conscious lifestyle.

Since 2015, we have been testing our reward system with our community in Amsterdam Noord where we reward waste separation with wasted coins that can be exchanged for discounts in the neighborhood.

This concept turned out to be successful. And that is why we are ready for the next step!

We are currently in the middle of developing our APP in which our system is translated into a lifestyle app that not only helps users separate their waste, but also helps users step by step to reduce plastic use in daily life.


Current WASTED users: 2500
Circular brands that provide discounts to our users: 30
WASTED coins redeemed per month by our users at re-warders: 107
Successful campaigns to collect specific waste streams: 4
Past years revenue by campaigning: 400.000

Once the app is ready we will launch it in the whole city of Amsterdam and develop new up cycling ventures with our ecosystem of material innovators

WASTED focuses on millennials and families, which are acquainted with digital purchases, and sympathise with a more sustainable lifestyle but do not have the right motivation or tools to change their behaviour. Fr om our experience in Amsterdam, our users would love to live a more plastic conscious lifestyle, but don’t know where to start and don’t have the time, they need help. Our target demographic are millannials (generation Y) with the age of 24-40. Amsterdam population breakdown is:
20-20 year olds - 167,372 people
30-39 year olds - 160,548
So a total of 320k
Millennials - born after 1981, make up 25% of the world's population and are expected to be the top generation of consumers in a few years.

Our current WASTED users are also composed by millennials and families, with The earning model is based on web-based expenditures. The e-commerce market in the NL is growing at 8% annually, where consumers spend on average 495 Euro per year. WASTED expected to engage 1% of this population in 5 years.

By 2050, about 20 percent of the world’s oil production will be used to make plastic.

Plastic has become a popular issue. People want to take action, but
they don’t know how. Moreover, many people are still tooit is impossible to find an initiative which tracks the real changes made by the users, or addresses a wider population of citizens that are not yet convinced about living a more plastic conscious lifestyle: many people are still too reluctant to the change due to lack of persistence, and lack of incentive.

WASTED is the solution to transform societal, environmental and economic issues related to the great plastic transition into a sustainable solution for all. Our rewards-based app helps users who want to be proactive in fighting plastic pollution by rewarding plastic free actions. Citizens go through a lifestyle guidance programme to change consumption habits. Rewards for changing behaviour are monetary discounts on circular products. Users will prove their change by taking pictures of the actions that will be validated. The validated action allow the users gather digital coins. The user has acces to products from circular brands at a discounted rate, by redeeming the digital coins. This functionality is meant to incentivise the users economically, and support a growing market of sustainable brands.

From our organisation’ perspective, WASTED PLATFORM springs from the 4-years experience in developing a reward system to incentives conscious waste disposal solutions, support local entrepreneurship and develop innovative up-cycling designers items in Amsterdam Noord: the WASTED system (www.wastedlab.nl) in its digital format has been tested, implemented and is now being optimised by co-experimenting community activation methods and tracking behavioural change. As of today, WASTED is working with a community of 2500 families in Amsterdam Noord, which gets rewarded to recycle plastic, paper, textiles, glass, bulky and organic waste.
The WASTED app will focus more on the reducing of plastic use and therefore the rewarders are all sustainable and plastic free.

it is impossible to find an initiative which tracks the real changes made by the users, or addresses a wider population of citizens that are not yet convinced about living a more plastic conscious lifestyle: many people are still too reluctant to the change due to lack of persistence, and lack of incentive. WASTED guides the user through a programme, step by step and provides an economic incentive for the change. Those are the reasons why WASTED will make the difference by combining:
*a systematic approach to plastic refusal by a unique validation method, where our users will have to prove that they are taking consistent, real actions.
* a reward-based approach to incentivize the lifestyle transition.
* the support of plastic-free brands, and therefore a plastic free economy.

Users will prove their change by taking pictures of the actions that will be validated. The validated action allow the users gather digital coins. The user has access to products from circular brands at a discounted rate, by redeeming the digital coins. This functionality is meant to incentivise the users economically, and support a growing market of sustainable brands.

Our app doesn't only reward waste separation but also plastic-free actions
- Users accept a plastic free challenge
- Take pictures of their new behavior to show that they are actually changing their behavior
- The photos of their actions are validated.
- App users receive digital coins for each validated photo
- These can be exchanged for discounts on sustainable and plastic-free products.

The earning model works in 3 ways:

- Affiliate marketing fees
We make 10% affiliate fee when our users purchase on the website of our sustainable rewarder brands

- Other is revenue is from campaigning
We work with municipalities & with corporate businesses to create Ad Hoc campaigns to collect plastic and recycle it into long term use / circular products

- Certified plastic with plastic Trademark
Together with municipality's and companies, we set up collection campaigns for the collection of specific plastic. The plastic that is collected through a campaign is certified, we can give it a special trademark.
WASTED plastic trademark: differentiate the plastic from other plastic.
This means it has been recycles by the community and means is saved from getting burned.

WASTED receives 10% on every purchase made by the user at the sustainable brand website, this is the earning model which allows profit making without compromising the company mission: to support and incentivize the circular economy by helping citizens to live a plastic conscious lifestyle. The App and affiliate marketing platforms allow to track the digital expenditures of the users and invoices the sustainable brands. We expect WASTED users to redeem our coins for ⅓ of their web purchase, for a total of 15 Euro per month on average. WASTED gathers 10% affiliate marketing fee from every web purchase. We estimated an average revenue of 1,5 euro per user per month.

We expect to start with one campaign in the first year which gives us a revenue of 100.000 which will grow exponential through the years.

Test the app
Marketing cost to reach first 10.000 users
Create the first Campaign with municipality or company to
Expand the team

This year we need 50.000 to get the first version of the app running and reach 10.000 users in 2020.
We are currently looking for an investment of 400,000 euro to save 25 Kiloton of plastic and reach 810,000 users generating 7 million EBITA in 5 years.

We are open to discuss an investment in equity, but we are are open for a convertible loan.

1. Users don’t buy products (affiliation lower return).
2. Growth adoption : we don’t reach enough users. (revenues from campaigns are lower than expected)
3. Business to Business efforts take longer: corporations tend to be slower to adopt.

What are you going to do to mitigate risks?
1. Diversified revenues streams
2. What efforts are you doing to make sure you generate those revenues?
1. Partnership with commercial organisation
2. Partnership with Industry leaders
3. Seeking to diversify products (cigarette)
4. Seeking ways to promote the wasted brand (Music for Change / Plastic Crossing)
3. Marketing campaign effectiveness & efficiency

Impact Hub Amsterdam
Start-up in residence Amsterdam
Be Start