Within the last decade the production of plastic has seen a massive increase. The plastic production within those last 10 years was equal to the production amount of the entire 20th century. Mass-consumption being cited as one of the main causes of the increase.

The production of plastic, in combination with plastic pollution, has a significant negative impact on the environment as it usually isn’t degradable and the production requires a lot of oil, gas and coal. Only a small percentage of plastics is recycled and recycled plastic is never used in high-quality products.

If we continue on this path, the environment will continue to be deteriorating at a rapid pace. The legacy we leave behind for future generations will be affected if we don’t take action now.

A solution to using earth damaging plastic as a means to package food, drinks, cosmetics and paint is by using metal instead. Metal is an environment friendly packaging material. Metal and glass are the only widely used packaging materials that have an unlimited lifespan and can be infinitely recycled. Metal has been used for years to package drinks, paint, conservatives, chemicals and other products.

While some first world countries like the US already have a metal can recycling industry (worth around 1 billion US dollars), many others do not.

According to a recent report, the global metal recycling industry is estimated to reach USD 434 billion by 2023. Which is a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.04%. The Asia-Pacific region is currently dominating the metal recycling industry, because of its rapid economic growth, increase in population and policies and regulation that supports environmental protection and waste management.

There are still a lot of countries to inform about the environmental benefits of utilizing metal cans for recycling. Its time to bring worldwide awareness to using metal as a go-to packaging and recycling solution.

A project that can help raising awareness and making a difference is Metal Packaging Token (MPT). MPT is a unique global project to use blockchain technology to incentivize the recycling of metal cans and at the same time support the environment.

Metal Packaging Token

Metal Packaging Token (MPT), founded in 2018 by metal packaging professionals, proposes a blockchain-based solution to improve cost-effectiveness within the metal packaging industry, making it a competitor to plastic packaging.

MPT’s main goal is to reduce or eliminate the difference in costs between plastic and metal packaging, so that all goods suitable for metal packaging will be packaged in metal cans. Without increasing the recycling ability, achieving a somewhat equal price in both plastic and metal as packaging material is highly unlikely. By creating a cost-efficient supply-chain, prices for metal packaging can come down significantly. Optimizing a project’s supply-chain is a popular use-case for blockchain technology. The distributed ledger technology provides interesting data and creates long-term statistics on recycling. MPT intends to launch a metal can recycling operation that incentivizes people with their own cryptocurrency, called MPT.

EOS blockchain

To ensure the projects ability to scale the MPT team chose the EOS blockchain as their main chain, after careful consideration. MPT will adopt EOS’s Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS) consensus algorithm. EOS gives MPT the ability to implement smart contracts and initiate a governance system to prevent the project from centralization. EOS’s layer-2 sidechain solution enables MPT to have multiple sidechains to run parallel to its main chain. A sidechain is a separate blockchain that is attached to its parent blockchain, using a two-way peg. The advantage of deploying sidechains is that there can be multiple sidechains without them interfering with its mainchain. Each sidechain can be deployed with a different use-case. For MPT, this feature will be utilized for deploying sidechains based on specific geographical locations, as metal recycling prices tend to be different in various regions.

MPT target market

The first market that MPT plans to tap into will be the end consumers. For this specific market MPT will manufacture MPT Deposit Points and they will develop a mobile application for users. Participating consumers can recycle their metal cans at deposit points nearby and in return they will receive MPT tokens. Users do not need to acquire blockchain knowledge. They only need a mobile app, the location of a nearby MPT Deposit Point and their metal cans for recycling.

The MPT supply-chain consists of five layers. The fifth layer is the end consumer, which is the starting point of the project and the key layer that ultimately pays for the other layers to be addressed. The other layers are:

Steel producers Can Makers Can Fillers Retail End Consumers

During the process of laying out the project, MPT will collaborate with brand owners by handing out an MPT Charging Start-Up Package. Brand owners will receive their first batch of MPT tokens free of charge. They can get familiar with the process, like printing the MPT QR code on the cans. Brand owners are entitled to set their own incentives and the amount of cans they want to start with. Besides establishing partnerships with brand owners, MPT will also apply for government subsidies in different jurisdictions.

MPT token structure

A total of 1,800,000,000 MPT will be created on the EOS blockchain. 30% of the tokens will be used for partnerships, marketing and new hires, while 20% of the total MPT supply will be allocated to the team, with a 100% lock up period of one year, starting at the time of airdrop.

The other 50% of MPT will be divided between the airdrop cap (roughly 34%), the scrap purchase (20%) and the community sale (46%). An estimated amount of 414,000,000 MPT will be available for purchase in the community sale that will last for four weeks.

Exceptional transparency during Community Sale

During their community sale MetalPackagingToken is using the industries best practices for transparancy. One of these features is the unique buy-back-guarantee that is hardcoded into the Tokens Contract. Any community sale participant that, for a duration of 12 months, decides not to use or move its MPT tokens will have the ability to activate the guarantee and get back its buy-in in full. Transferring the tokens bought in the community sale to another wallet or exchange account will forfeit the right to sell back MetalPackagingToken. By offering this buy-back mechanism, MetalPackagingToken creates a unique protection mechanism for its community sale participants. It also means that MetalPackagingToken can only use community sale funds after investors have ‘unlocked’ their tokens by trading them on an exchange.

Furthermore, all unsold MPT, will be burned immediately after the completion of the community sale. More details on the community sale will be published on the official website by Q1 of 2019. The token price for the community sale will be determined at a later date.

MPT will be available on decentralized exchanges, like Bancor, Chaince and other decentralized EOS dApp exchanges, as well as other centralized exchanges.

Concluding remarks

If we want the next generation of people to be able to live in a decent world, we need to start caring more about the environment. By lowering the costs of metal packaging, increasing its recycling opportunities and incentivizing individual recyclers, MPT is on its way to make a positive change in preserving the legacy we want to leave behind for the next generations. By achieving global adoption, MPT would have a big potential to drastically reduce energy consumption and Co2 emission. With a team that is comprised of metal packaging industry professionals and a project that has an aligned interest with brand owners to make a difference in reducing the plastic contamination of our planet, MPT wants to create a behavioral change in people’s actions and raise more awareness to this ever-increasing issue.

For more information about Metal Packaging Token, visit their official website or check out their Telegram channel. More in-depth information can be found in the whitepaper. If reading this article, caught your interest and you want to contribute to the Metal Packaging Token project, then start raising awareness about MPT and perhaps even enquire how to start your own local MPT sidechain.

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