Situation

At the time, deposit returns were limited to supermarkets. There was no viable solution for returning plastic bottles and aluminum cans in public, out-of-home locations such as train stations, parks, and city centres. StatieApp was created as a spin-off of Impackt to fill this gap. Together with a hardware partner providing outdoor RVM's (reverse vending machines), and Statiegeld Nederland for official product and barcode data, we set out to build a system capable of handling deposits safely in public space.

Challenge

• Handling real monetary value in an unattended, public environment
• High risk of fraud and misuse
• Guaranteeing 100% delivery of transactions across unreliable networks
• Integrating consumer apps, hardware systems, and external APIs
• Designing for scale and future rollout in the EU

What we did

• Designed and implemented a secure backend and API architecture
• Developed the consumer-facing iOS and Android app
• Integrated with the hardware partner’s smart city platform and Statiegeld Nederland for product and barcode validation
• Implemented guaranteed transaction flows and fraud prevention logic
• Deployed a scalable infrastructure for high-volume public usage in multiple countries at once.

Result

• A production-ready deposit system designed for public environments.
• The platform proved technically sound, secure, and scalable, but was ultimately not rolled out due to commercial and partnership decisions.
• The platform is complete, production-ready, and stands as a viable foundation for public deposit systems.