Veolia Group
In the world
Specialty Brands

Smart Cycle, the web and mobile socially-responsible crowd recycling app

Designed and developed by a team of students from the Institut d’Administration des Entreprises in Aix-en-Provence and the Université d'Aix-Marseille, Smart Cycle is a web and mobile local and socially-responsible recycling platform for all types of urban scrap items (goods, household goods, equipment, materials, rubble and waste) which uses geolocation to pinpoint the location of items to be exchanged or donated or which have been found.
Projects listing

Environment and biodiversity

    Place
    Marseille (France)

    Sponsor
    Alain Staron

    Grant
    €5,000 and 1st prize at the 2016 Student Solidarity Awards.

    Project Leader

    Énergie, eau et environnement du Sahel (EDS)

Alain Staron : “The smart cycle project is the result of a brilliant ‘loop-closing’ idea. It brings together all the reuse and recycling stakeholders around a meaningful concept which is very important for Veolia.

Founded in 2015 by students from Aix-en-Provence IAE and the Université d’Aix-Marseille, Smart Cycle has the following aims and objectives:

  • Develop local urban waste and scrap recycling solutions.
  • Help clean up urban areas by developing innovative solutions.
  • Help optimize waste collection by councils and private sector operators.
  • Help local communities by facilitating access to goods at affordable prices.
  • Promote crowd recycling and the concepts and tools developed by the association and its members.

 
Socially-responsible crowd recycling the Smart Cycle way…
An alternative and complementary recycling system, Smart Cycle is a socially-responsible local web and mobile recycling platform for all types of urban waste. Smart Cycle uses geolocation to pinpoint the location of goods to be donated or exchanged. The solution links up users and sends information to the various stakeholders involved in waste recycling and reuse (individuals, recycling facilities, associations, businesses, manufacturers and institutions). Smart Cycle fosters the development of local waste recycling methods and helps to declutter the streets.
 

 
….based on values such as ecology and the environment, the social and solidarity economy, the circular economy and sustainable development
A large number of unwanted items are found on the streets every day and this situation was the starting point for the crowd recycling concept.
 
In France, 868 million tonnes of waste are produced each year of which bulky waste accounts for 5.4 million tonnes and still useable furniture represents 2.7 million tonnes. What do people think? 68% of French people say they are concerned by recycling and are willing to change their shopping habits and 38% state that they have picked up an item which had been left or discarded on the pavement over the past 12 months (source: L’Obsoco, 2014). 
 
The Smart Cycle solution uses existing technologies such as the internet and mobile networks, mobile apps, databases, geolocation systems, community websites and social networks, to introduce new practices:
  • Crowd Recycling, by developing a community which works together to treat and recycle urban waste.
  • Smart Cycling, using mobile technology to address recycling issues.

This acclaimed and approved project scooped 1st prize at the 2016 Student Solidarity Awards.