Rowville Recycling

A low-carbon food-purchasing system for Rowville, using refillable packaging and smart technology.

Rowville Recycling uses existing RFID technology embedded in plastic food containers. People order their goods online and take their clean, empty containers to the neighbourhood Hub.  Containers are collected (along with any recycling) and filled at the supermarket depot, then returned to the Hubs for collection. In this simple system, the environmental savings are multiplied.   Packaging, rubbish and landfill are reduced, with further gains coming from bulk purchasing and storage at the supermarket.  The efficiency of the delivery system reduces the need for people to drive to the supermarket, with an entire neighbourhood’s groceries delivered by one truck.

Designer

Sam Pettigrove, Kerry Taylor, Yan Fei

Domain

Systems & Services

Studio Leader

Mark Strachan

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