Malaysians can exchange plastic waste for gold

One man’s trash can end up being his gold too. Hello-Gold is launching 500 vending machines across Malaysia that convert plastic bottles and aluminum cans to investment-grade gold. The fintech company has teamed up with Malaysia’s reversevending machine (RVM) company KLEAN to bring about a recycling scheme that offers Malaysians 0.00059 grams of gold for each recycled plastic bottle or aluminum can.

After registering for an account on the HelloGold app, users can bring their plastic bottles and aluminium cans to any KLEAN RVM.

After depositing the recyclables, they can then convert KLEAN e-credits into gold through an integration between the KLEAN digital wallet and the HelloGold mobile app. The e-credits can also be exchanged for airtime, smart card credit, and food vouchers, according to KLEAN’s website