SYED ZAIN ALMOHDZAR, DATO’ DR NICK BODEN AND JOEY AZMAN
Founders of Klean
Despite regulations and campaigns to reduce the production and use of single-use plastics, Malaysia has a serious problem with the stuff. Recycling is the obvious solution, but there is no incentive for the everyday person on the street to collect plastic waste and recycle.
Malaysian start-up Klean wants to turn that approach on its head with its unique reverse-vending machines (RVM) that reward people with points for recycling their plastics and aluminium cans. Dato’ Dr Nick Boden, a chiropractor and entrepreneur, says the idea behind the business is to re-educate people about recycling and change their perception of plastic waste. Inspired by Germany’s highly successful container deposit schemes, where nearly all containers sold are recovered and recycled, Boden hopes to emulate that success in Southeast Asia with Klean.
“We believe that using points is the best way to increase the intrinsic value of that container, so people realise they are throwing away something valuable,” he explains. As an example, South African Boden cites Klean’s partnership with Resorts World Genting which offers a free theme park ride in exchange for five plastic bottles. He says this helps improve the perception of the value of a plastic bottle, which nets as little as 10 cents per bottle at the recycling plant.
Chief technology officer Syed Zain Almohdzar explains how each RVM unit comes with features including sensors and cameras that are paired with artificial intelligence (AI) to separate plastic from aluminium waste. Users interact with the RVM via the Klean mobile app as they deposit their recyclable waste into the machine and redeem their points by scanning a QR code generated on the screen.
Zain is motivated by the results of a six-month pilot project during which Malaysians disposed of 100,000 plastic bottles, and redeemed nearly 90 per cent of the points allocated. He adds that the recycling data collected by the machines is invaluable in generating Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) reports that include details on the total items recycled, carbon footprint saved, and which brand of drinks is recycled the most.
The start-up plans to roll out 30 new RVMS in crucial locations around the Klang Valley following their partnership with logistics giant DHL. There are also plans to create mobile RVMS that can be driven to different locations to collect plastic and aluminium waste in various communities.
Klean’s chief financial officer Joey Azman adds they are building up their database of partners with the aim of offering a greater variety of rewards for users; so far they have onboarded partners such as Touch ’n Go, Flexiroam, Resorts World Genting, iqiyi, Purelyb and Lotus’s. Besides leveraging partnerships with brands, Klean’s founders say they aim to make it a selfsustaining business using ad revenue generated by advertisements on RVMS to fund future initiatives.
Boden believes that Klean is already playing a significant role in positively impacting the environment, diverting many single-use plastic containers away from landfills and drains. His hope is that Klean meets three out of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals set by the United Nations: good health and wellbeing, responsible consumption and production, and sustainable cities and communities.
When visiting the markets in search of fruits and vegetables, many of us tend to pick the ones that are picture-perfect and free of blemishes. We often feel those with marks or which are imperfectly shaped are of lower quality or even inedible. Left untouched, this “flawed” produce is sent to landfills, side-stepping the possibilities of being sold at a lower price or channelled to communities who struggle to buy enough food.
That’s what then 19-year-old Hailey Yong and her friends had realised when they were doing research for a business pitch for regional startup competition the Hult Prize in 2020.
“Reality hit us when we saw what was really going on behind the scenes in the supply chain,” says Yong. “I remember strolling down the fruit section in a wet market when I saw an uncle separating the fruits according to how they looked. And if they were of different sizes and imperfections, he’d set them behind the stall. When I asked him what he was going to do with those fruits, he said he’d either throw them away or turn them into animal feed. That’s when I realised how massive the issue was.”
Knowing that sustainability can be a hard topic to breach, Yong decided on a more relatable, “digestible” message for The Unusual Greens (TUG): using these fruits to create healthy, allnatural gelato with an accessible price tag.
“The end-goal is to break the stereotype against these ‘ugly’ looking fruits,” Yong says. “By [making] gelato, we’re able to reach a wider audience and get them curious about the ingredients we use, which then allows us the opportunity to explain TUG’S story and why we use imperfect fruits.”
Not everyone is easy to convince, however. “While a majority of customers are receptive to what we have to say, a fraction of them will go, ‘If you use secondgrade fruits, are they even safe to consume?’ While I can’t force them to change their minds, by continuing to educate people that they shouldn’t judge produce based on its appearance because it has the same taste and the same nutrients as conventional-looking produce, I hope [more people] would be willing to listen.”
While there has been an increased awareness of food wastage, Yong says the issue hasn’t received enough attention to allow people to truly understand the
negative impact and lost potential of wasted produce.
“Let’s talk about food loss first,” she says. “It’s basically food that gets lost at the start of the supply chain and before retail. Take what happens in the farms for example; I had farmers tell me that because of the lack of manpower, acres and acres of fruits are left to hang on trees because there’s no one to harvest them. That’s a lot of produce lost before it even gets on the shelves.
“And retailers have policies where they have to replace the products that are on display for new ones. Just to have the freshest fruit at the front. So, importers would then import at least an additional 30 per cent for them to do that. That incurs extra costs and carbon emissions because we go to imports instead of our local farmers. But it’s so much more cost-efficient if we went to the farmers themselves—and they grow great fruits! We aren’t just looking at the financial losses; we’re looking at a waste of resources as well—did you know that a single banana tree takes half a year to grow? Think about how much effort went into that tree.”
Yong, now 21, is trying to solidify TUG’S operations in a more circular model, and while that can get expensive, she sees it as a long-term investment. Since last November, the enterprise has helped nearly 140 families from underserved communities by giving them fresh fruit to eat; supported small businesses by buying unbought fruits; and saved more than 400kg worth of perfectly edible fruits that would have otherwise gone to landfills.
In 2021, Yong and her friends went door to door, giving away cups of gelato to members of low-income communities. When she visited a single mother and her family in the low-cost flats of Lembah Subang, Yong asked the youngest child, a 10-year-old boy named Amir, what he would do if she gave him RM100. He told her he would give it to orphans, because they needed it more than he did.
That encounter inspired Yong, and she has plans in the future to expand her scope to work with children, and give them opportunities to upskill and be empowerd.
“I was fortunate enough to have the chance to initiate an idea, but these children? They don’t have that,” she says. “But they have dreams—and we want to give them the chance to live them.”