Zermy: A Two-Sided Marketplace for Reducing Plastic Waste Through Eco-Friendly Commerce

The Ecological Crisis & The Market Gap

The global ecosystem is severely threatened by massive amounts of plastic waste, with millions of tons of plastic causing damage and leading to significant resource wastage annually. While public desire to transition to greener consumption is strong, the e-commerce market offers limited eco-friendly product options, and there is a shortage of reliable platforms that make these essential goods accessible. This challenge creates a disconnect: people want to be eco-friendly, but the path to reliable, green products is currently restricted and unclear.

Zermy Solution: An Incentivized Ecological Marketplace

Zermy provides a focused, two-sided marketplace designed to sell ecological products and actively contribute to the reduction of plastic waste. By ensuring the widespread sale of these eco-friendly alternatives, Zermy directly helps reduce the reliance on plastics. The platform ensures that users can easily access products that actively protect the ecosystem. To further incentivize sustainable behavior and a circular economy, Zermy implements a unique reward system: users earn tokens for every recycled product purchased. These tokens can be accumulated (e.g., 50 or 100) and later redeemed for special discounts or gifts on subsequent purchases, inspiring repeat sustainable shopping.

Market Potential & Value Proposition

The market opportunity for Zermy is positioned within the rapidly expanding global eco-friendly products sector, which is currently valued at $355.3 billion. Even focusing on a single region like Vietnam, the market size for eco-friendly products is estimated at $1 billion. Zermy projects an estimated market share of $7 million. Zermy's Value Proposition centers on creating a seamless marketplace experience for both buyers and sellers. For Buyers, the platform guarantees an easy search and discovery experience, leading to high buyer satisfaction and inspiration for future ecological purchases.

Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Alignment

Zermy’s operations are fundamentally structured to promote sustainability and circular economy principles, directly aligning with key United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

• SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production: This is the core alignment. Zermy promotes resource efficiency by ensuring the sale of eco-friendly products and actively incentivizing the purchase of recycled products through its token system. By facilitating this eco-friendly commerce, the platform contributes to achieving sustainable management and efficient use of natural resources and substantially reducing waste generation.
• SDG 14: Life Below Water: The platform's primary goal is to combat ecological problems, specifically the negative impact of millions of tons of plastic waste on the ecosystem. By reducing the demand for new plastics and promoting alternatives, Zermy supports the goal of preventing and significantly reducing marine pollution of all kinds.

The development of POİCE: Guiding the Next Generation to the Right University was robustly supported by the specialized faculty and mentors of the Department of Architecture and Construction. Their crucial expertise in systems planning, structural coherence, and user-centric design ensured that the mobile application's complex information architecture, which integrates data from different universities and provides comparison tools was built into a stable, reliable, and intuitively navigable platform, mirroring the foundational requirements for successful modern construction projects.