By Byeon Hee-jin
Associate Editor of Campus Section

When you visit places that have a large floating population, you can see many overflowing garbage bins, making the roadside messier. This occurs because there is objectively a lot of trash on roadsides and street cleaners are unable to verify which and when the trash bins are full. There is someone who took action on this problem. The Argus met Kwon Soon-beom, the CEO of the “Ecubelabs,” and heard the stories about his invention.

The Argus: Hello. Please introduce yourself to The Argus readers.
Kwon Soon-beom (Kwon): Hi. I am 29-year-old Kwon Soon-beom, the CEO of the Ecubelabs. “Ecubelabs” is a company that suggests solutions to effectively deal with urban environment problems by using solar energy to compact garbage and send information about how much is loaded in the garbage bins to the staff.

The Argus: How did you start this business?
Kwon: I founded Ecubelabs in 2011. At first, I started it as a project with my three other friends for fun. When I was a college student, I once worked as an intern in “Social Consulting Group,” a volunteer organization that social enterprises can consult. Once, I was hanging out with my fellow interns and saw trash scattered all over the roadside. That moment, I came up with a simple idea that it may be solvable by compressing the garbage just as we do at home, by using solar energy. It was not a grandiose invention, but my friends and I started the project for both fun and as a socially meaningful activity. It turned out successfully, founding Ecubelabs as well.

The Argus: How do the “Clean Cube” and “Clean Cap” work?
Kwon: The principle is very simple. There is a solar energy panel, and the panel helps charge the battery of the Clean Cube. Inside the Clean Cube, there is a compressor that looks like a punch ball and a sensor. The sensor automatically operates periodically, and when the sensor is covered with garbage, it starts to press the trash.
Clean Cube also gets information regarding how much the trash can be loaded by the time compressor went down and came back. Clean Cap delivers the information, and the information is provided to the users by Clean City Networks (CCN), which works on both Ecubelabs website and smartphone application.

The Argus: In what ways do your products help solve the urban environmental problems?
Kwon: Clean Cube can load eight times more than regular trash cans and so it takes much more time for it to get full. As a result, the frequency of street cleaners picking up the refuse will lessen and raise efficiency. Moreover, by the information accessible by CCN, the traffic line of garbage trucks shortens and reduces CO2 gases those trucks make.

The Argus: Where are your products installed?
Kwon: At the end of 2012, they were installed on the campuses of Seoul National University, Yonsei University, Korea University and Dongguk University, which was the very first installation. Recently, we signed a contract with Seoul City and installed them in crowded places such as Hongdae, Insa-dong, Gwanghwamun and Myeong-dong. Moreover, most of the parks in Seoul City will have Clean Cube by this year. Not only is Clean Cube in Seoul, but it is installed in Jeju Island and Daegu Dongseong-ro as well.
Clean Cap is not launched worldwide yet, but a lot of other countries such as England, Norway, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Singapore have installed Clean Cube, and the United States and Canada are under way as well. We have signed contracts worldwide since we participate in exhibitions about 10-15 times a year.

The Argus: Did you have any hardships when inventing or installing your products?
Kwon: Yes. When I was about to launch my product in Korea, I faced an institutional limitation. In order to sell, we had to adjust based on government regulations, but that process takes about one and a half year. However, we were unable to wait that amount of time financially. That is why we started to participate in foreign expos.
In addition, because Clean Cube was an unprecedented product, no one wanted to try it at first. In this kind of situation, most of the companies use a strategy of installing their products without a fee to prove the quality, but we were not even financially able to do that. As a result, we sent Hanwha Chemical a proposal saying that this could be a win-win chance for both of us. Surprisingly, this proposal was accepted and they bought one hundred million won worth of our products and installed them on the campuses of Seoul National University, Korea University and Yonsei University. Since this was the very first installment, we could get real feedback as well and so we could develop it into higher quality.

The Argus: We have heard that Ecubelabs keeps improving the product performances. What do you focus on when you develop the products?
Kwon: Original and significant technologies are not the only one needed in this area. I think this industry has been isolated from modern technology. Thus, I focus on inventing hardware that is easy to approach and low in cost and effectively converge on the needed parts. This removes all the ineffectiveness emerged from the present situation.

The Argus: Are there any other things that Ecubelabs has suggested as a solution besides urban environmental problems?
Kwon: Six months ago, Ecubelabs installed Clean Cube and Clean Cap at Bukchon Hanok Village. Since it is very crowded and has many tourist attractions, there was a lot of illegal parking. This not only infringes on residents’ rights, but also hinders fire engines in emergency situations. Thus, with Seoul City, we carried forward a project by slightly changing the sensors we use on Clean Cap and installed them in no-parking areas. When a car stops for a certain amount of time, the sensor regards it as an illegal parking and the information goes to police station.

The Argus: What are other parts that you want to develop?
Kwon: Presently, we are dealing with residential waste. Going forward, I would like to invent a product that deals with industrial waste. It has “waste” in common, but the handling method is quite different when it comes to industrial waste. Clean Cube focuses on “loadage,” but products for industrial garbage should focus on chemical parts such as toxicity, not the loadage. We are currently working on this.

The Argus: How can young people be of help on social environmental problems?
Kwon: I am not quite sure because I also did not start this for social good but for fun. However, we can all start with a simple mindset. In fact, everything we feel uncomfortable or ineffective has social costs. If you keep this fact in mind and always keep your eyes on things in various aspects, I think that is the best thing we can do. However, it should not stop here. We have to have a macroscopic viewpoint in order to realistically resolve social problems.

The Argus: Is there anything you want to say to The Argus readers?
Kwon: I hope you can approach the world with a broader viewpoint. With broader aspects, I can assure you that you can find much more inconvenience permeating in our lives. Moreover, I hope you would put your ideas into practice.

When nobody tried to take an action on simple problem, Kwon Soon-beom had a little twist on what we can see in everyday life. He did not start it to be a “hero” but started it with small curiosity. Consequently, the outcome turned out to be successful both personally and socially. If you look back on things that people take for granted with a broader viewpoint, you might become the next person to find a new way to solve daily problems.