Ten years ago in Bologna, an idea was born that quickly captured the interest of citizens and drew the attention of municipalities and businesses alike. The result is a shared resource that now includes over 2 million catalogued packaging items, more than 500,000 of which have been uploaded thanks to spontaneous contributions from citizens. For FARE INSIEME, Giampaolo Colletti interviews Noemi De Santis, co founder and head of communications at Giunko
by Giampaolo Colletti
@gpcolletti
Forget the garages - those iconic spaces where startups are born around the world. In this story, everything begins in the kitchen of a student residence. We are in Bologna, where Giacomo Farneti – one of Giunko’s founding partners – has a breakthrough idea: to create a useful, comprehensive, and free App for separate waste collection. Necessity is the mother of invention, we might say. Travelling frequently for work, Giacomo had experienced first-hand how hard it was to match his commitment to proper waste sorting with the wide variety of rules in force across Italian municipalities. Different waste streams and confusingly coloured bins – even with the best intentions, it was all too easy to get it wrong. Hence the simple yet revolutionary idea of connecting location-based information regarding local separate collection rules and packaging materials, with a feature that uniquely identifies each product. What distinguishes the various products? The bar code printed on their packaging. Users can instantly see how to dispose of the packaging in their hands (in accordance with the separate collection rules of the municipality where they are located), simply by scanning the barcode using their smartphone's camera. Later, the App also introduced image-recognition search, greatly expanding the range of waste that can be identified with a single tap. Said and done. A first test was conducted at night in a supermarket just outside Bologna's old city walls. It worked. We set off on our journey.
Portrait of an idea. Everything starts with a simple, almost trivial gesture - one that is often underestimated. A hand holding some random piece of packaging, and a question shared by millions - indeed billions - of people worldwide: which bin does this go in? It was out of that everyday uncertainty that, more than ten years ago, a business was born with a strong commitment to community service. It shakes people out of their complacency, awakens activism in everyday actions, and strengthens the bond between entrepreneurship and the community. Ten years ago, Junker was born: the App that has forever changed the relationship between citizens and waste. Today it is much more than a compass for recycling: it is a platform that serves 30 million citizens in over 3,500 municipalities and has become an integral part of the country’s environmental infrastructure. “Our mission has been clear from the outset: to put digital technology at the service of people. Sustainability must be simple, convenient, and within everyone’s reach. Only then does it truly become part of everyday life”, says Noemi De Santis, co founder and head of communications at Giunko. Hence the brilliant idea: scanning the barcode reveals, in just a few seconds, the right bin for the municipality you are in. It offers image-based recognition of items (along with a map of special drop-off points): from used cooking oil to WEEE, for those items that can’t be disposed of in the household bins.
Portrait of the company. Over the years Italians have learned to use Junker as a true personal tutor. However, the App hasn’t only grown technologically. Its growth has also been social – communal. Users don’t just search for information – they create it. If a product is not yet in the system, a simple photo is enough to flag it. The in house classification team takes care of the rest. The result is a shared resource that now includes over 2 million catalogued packaging items, more than 500,000 of which have been uploaded thanks to spontaneous contributions from citizens. “It’s our real treasure trove of knowledge. Sometimes we receive beautiful and funny photos: some people place a flower next to the packaging, others even send us an image of kitten posing”, says De Santis. Interestingly, the number of reports is falling: about 18,000 a year. A sign of progress, not an indication of disengagement. “It means that the database is almost exhaustive currently. What’s missing now is very little: only very local or niche products. However, public participation remains very high.”
Today’s and tomorrow’s challenges. Junker has also become a gateway to local services: bulky waste collection, bookings, direct communication with municipal offices, even water service management. “Citizens are ready; they are asking for a single, reliable access point. Digital tools simplify and connect; they remove the need to hunt for phone numbers or forms scattered across the web”, says De Santis. It is also a broad community from a linguistic point of view: Junker is translated into 13 languages, unique in its field. “Sustainability has to include everyone. Grandparents, foreigners, tourists: everyone must be able to sort waste, at any time.” Hence the commitment to accessibility, from optimised interfaces to international best practices. Looking ahead, there is the future, which looks to Europe. Junker’s model, rooted in local communities but built on modular technology, is ready to cross national borders: EU regulations, the Green Deal, new packaging standards, and the digitalisation of environmental information. “Junker is a cultural bridge linking technology and environmental awareness – the very approach Europe is looking for. We got there years ahead of time”, De Santis recalls. Perhaps the future of sustainability will not be shaped by loud, sweeping revolutions. Instead, it may come from a notification on our always connected smartphones, a gesture that takes only seconds, and a quiet community determined to change the world one bin at a time.
https://podcast.confindustriaemilia.it/
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