What if you could save the world from the comfort of your home? That may sound like a loaded question, but we may just have the answer. Meet Lasso–the recycling appliance that fits in your kitchen, garage, laundry room, or alongside any of your home appliances.
Why you need an At-Home Recycling Appliance
The Lasso at-home recycling appliance is an essential part of the solution to the overflowing waste crisis that is plaguing our planet. The current recycling model is stuck in the past, with stakeholders neglecting to adapt to this ever-growing and ever-evolving global emergency. That’s why with Lasso’s state-of-the-art technology, we’re taking the current outdated recycling model out of the dark ages.
Unlike your current curbside recycling bin, which devalues materials by mixing your bottles, tins, plastics, and paper together, the Lasso takes a whole new approach to recycling. Each used material is broken down and processed in your home, producing recycled end-products of a far higher quality and value than its industrial cousins.
The Lasso is the missing key to unlocking true circularity, facilitating the closed-loop economy our world desperately needs.
Installation in Four Easy Steps
So your Lasso delivery is approaching... What now?
First, let’s get your Lasso set up. Your pre-order purchase of the Lasso includes installation, so we will come and deliver, place, and install the Lasso in your home. All you need is a spot in your home with the same connections as your dishwasher.
- Schedule a delivery time on your MyLasso account.
- Say hi to your new appliance (and the Lasso team member as they complete the installation process).
- Download the Lasso app and set up your account.
- Follow the steps on your Lasso app to finish the installation process.
That’s it! Now you are set up and ready to begin processing your recyclables!
Loading the Lasso is as easy as loading a dishwasher:
Simply load your recyclables into the compartment door!
How easy was that? While you sit back, relax and let the Lasso do its thing, let’s take a look at what’s going on inside this sleek new addition to your home.
Dissecting the Lasso
(ie. how a full-scale recycling facility is shrunken down into your home)
Step One: Scanning
After you load your recyclables, the Lasso detects the specific material and color using its sensor array and recognition software. Behind that door, the Lasso’s sensors and AI technology are at work.
If your region uses a bottle-deposit system, the sensors will scan barcodes and credit any refunds to your account.
This is also the point where your Lasso will reject any non-recyclable items back to the user.
Step Two: Cleaning
Now that Lasso knows what item you’ve inserted, it’s time to begin the wash cycle! Using steam and high-pressure spray heads, Lasso removes food residue, labels, and adhesives from the recyclable with a minimal amount of water–less than if you hand-washed your recyclables in the sink!
Once clean, the item is dried and ready for the next step!
This cleaning stage is important because it ensures your materials are sanitary when stored within the base of your machine. Goodbye smelly recycling bin!
Step Three: Processing
Now that your item is squeaky clean, it’s ready for processing. Lasso directs your item to its specific material stream located within the machine.
Once there, Lasso’s granulators do their thing! They break the materials down: plastic is flaked, glass is crushed to a cullet, and metals are shredded.
These size-reducing granulators process each material group to the optimum industry specifications. Your used materials are now products, ready to be sold back to manufacturers.
Step Four: Storage
Notice how Lasso has kept your items completely separate throughout the processing stage. Once processed, each material (type and color) is directed into its own separate chamber within the product storage container (PSC), ensuring every material maintains its maximum purity.
The Lasso prototype has storage sections for seven different material types: three for glass (clear, green, and brown); two for metals (aluminum and tin); and two for plastics (PET & HDPE). Other material types are in the works to be added in the future.
Your Lasso will notify you when your product storage container (PSC) is full and ready to be emptied. Just schedule a pickup on your MyLasso app and we’ll take care of the rest!
Another example of how the Lasso is more efficient than your current recycling program… the Lasso storage is so compact that it only needs to be emptied 6-8 times a year!
What makes the Lasso better than the current system?
The current curbside collection of mixed-stream recycling is not working. Less than 20% of the recycling collected is actually being recycled1. An even smaller percentage is remanufactured into products of similar value, leading a majority of your recycling to be downcycled.
Why is this?
When you mix all your ingredients together in your curbside bin, each material has to be sorted–either by machine or by hand at a sorting facility. Unfortunately, this process is error-prone and the resulting supposedly separated materials aren’t 100% pure.
This, known in the industry as Recycling Contamination, is the #1 reason a majority of your recyclables end up in landfills2… and worse, our oceans.
The earlier and more effectively different used materials can be separated and kept clean, the better chance they have of being recycled. This is why the 11 US States3 that use bottle deposit systems have a higher recycling rate than the rest of the country. The items are separated by material type which helps reduce, but not eliminate, contamination in the current recycling stream.
The Lasso takes this much further by separating materials at the point of end-of-use: your home. They are cleaned, processed, and securely stored to retain their maximum purity with near zero contamination that can feed back into the manufacturing of new products in a closed-loop system. Within the Lasso Loop, no valuable products are left behind or lost along the way.
Lasso recycling is closed-loop recycling because the Lasso outputs products that can be used in manufacturing items of the same or similar value: glass bottles are made back into glass bottles, plastic containers back into plastic containers, and aluminum cans back into aluminum cans. By saving resources, closed-loop recycling reduces CO2e emissions and maintains the cash value inherent in these valuable materials.
This is a closed-loop recycling system.
This is the future of recycling.
This is Lasso & the waste-free future.
Sources:
1. https://www.epa.gov/facts-and-figures-about-materials-waste-and-recycling/national-overview-facts-and-figures-materials#Recycling
2. https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2020/03/13/fix-recycling-america/https://www.ocregister.com/2019/05/17/your-recyclables-are-going-to-the-dump-heres-why/https://wamu.org/story/19/02/12/does-your-recycling-actually-get-recycled-yes-maybe-it-depends/
3. The Beverage Container Recycling Program Monthly Volume Report July - Dec 2021CalRecycle Biannual Report of Beverage Container Sales, Returns, Redemption, and Recycling Rates July - Dec 2021
