Malaysia first to offer gold in exchange for recycled plastics and aluminium cans

Malaysians will soon be the first to earn gold by recycling their plastic bottles and aluminium cans. Southeast Asian fintech firm HelloGold and Malaysia’s reverse-vending machine (RVM) company KLEAN are implementing a recycling scheme that offers Malaysians 0.00059 grams of investment-grade gold for each recycled plastic bottle and each aluminium can.

Anyone can start earning gold by first downloading the HelloGold app from the Google Play Store or Apple Store and registering for an account.

KLEAN CEO Nick Boden, said, “Plastic waste is increasing around the world, yet recycling rates remain low. Through this partnership, we aim to encourage greater recycling by showing Malaysians the potential wealth and money that lies around our communities, in our landfills and floats in our oceans.”

“After launching in Malaysia, we see great potential to expand our offering to other countries such as Singapore and South Africa. In countries such as South Africa, plastic scavenging is often the main source of income for families who must sell their plastic within an informal economy that is dominated by middle men with high fees. Enabling these families to directly access virtual currency or gold at KLEAN’s reverse vending machines will allow for a safer and more stable economic livelihood.”

The KLEAN Reverse Vending Machines collect aluminium cans and plastic bottles, sort and crush on site, while registering users and rewarding them with virtual points. These collected items are then smelted back into aluminium in the case of cans and recycled into PET pellets in the case of plastic bottles.