Collaboration for HORIZON-CL6-2027-01-CIRCBIO-05

Dogus Teknoloji can develop a digital solution (mobile app and/or web platform) that facilitates and optimizes the collection, sorting, and redistribution of end-of-life footwear products. The key features would include:

• Define and display collection points and storage locations for discarded footwear to make disposal easy and accessible for consumers.

• Coordinate redistribution and recycling channels to ensure footwear waste is valorised efficiently and aligned with circular economy principles.

• Enable citizens to schedule home pickups for end-of-life footwear donations, reducing barriers to proper disposal.

• Integrate route optimization for collection teams to minimize environmental impact and operational costs, supporting climate change mitigation.

• Provide real-time answers to user questions through chatbots or live support, improving consumer understanding of sustainable disposal practices.

• Offer educational content on sustainable footwear design, recycling processes, and the environmental benefits of circularity, fostering informed consumer choices.

• Include tutorials and guides for correct footwear disposal and preparation for reuse, reducing contamination and improving recycling efficiency.

• Encourage participation through gamification features (e.g., badges for frequent contributors), promoting consumer engagement and sustainable behavior.

• Share impact metrics (e.g., number of shoes recycled, CO₂ emissions avoided, microplastics prevented) to motivate users and demonstrate environmental benefits.

• Integrate Digital Product Passport functionality to enable traceability, reuse, and recycling, while minimizing hazardous chemicals and microplastics release.

• Facilitate collaboration with municipal waste management systems, footwear manufacturers, retailers, and NGO networks for scalability and systemic impact.

• Support innovative business models such as take-back schemes and repair/reuse marketplaces to strengthen the circular footwear value chain.

We can fulfill the below scope/outcomes of the call:

- all relevant stakeholders, including consumers, economic and social economy operators and waste managers, have an improved understanding of the technical, environmental, economic and social challenges and benefits to circularity in the footwear industry;

- economic operators and waste managers are provided with evidence-based, innovative, cost-effective, and scalable solutions that improve the management of end-of-life footwear products, valorise post-consumer footwear waste materials and increase the circularity of the value chain