Lorax

The increase in plastic production and consumption in South Africa has placed significant stress on landfills and the environment. To address these issues, The Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries (DEFF) introduced mandatory Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) regulations in May 2021. The aim is to hold producers physically and/or financially responsible for their products post consumption. EPR regulations require producers to submit biannual reports stating the quantities of waste generated, collected, diverted away from landfills, exported and disposed of. Producers can outsource the management of post-consumption recycling activities to Producer Responsibility Organisations (PROs). 

Lorax is a plastic waste management system that uses blockchain and QR code technology to track bottles throughout their lifecycle from manufacturing through to recycling. Lorax aims to enhance accountability amongst plastic bottle manufacturers through the accurate reporting of production and recycling activities.  Interactive dashboards provide a reliable way for the DEFF and PROs to monitor individual manufacturers and view aggregated data for South Africa. In addition, Lorax provides a central platform to register and manage waste pickers. This can help with achieving standardisation and fair compensation of waste pickers. Lastly, Lorax provides recycling incentives as waste pickers and the general public can be rewarded with redeemable tokens for every bottle that they deposit.