A study and pilot project to establish if a digital waste management solution could improve waste collection and recycling in Southern Africa, starting with Mozambique.

March, 2023 June, 2023

Funders

  • European Union Africa RISE programme

Partners

  • AMOR Mozambique

About the project

Delivered by Kolekt BV, The project involved undertaking a study and pilot project to establish if a digital waste management solution could improve waste collection and recycling in Southern Africa, starting with Mozambique.

Like most developing countries, waste management in Mozambique, is a major challenge caused by cultural and economic reasons, and a lack of proper urbanisation in the peripheral belt of cities. Both countries need a better market for solid waste where buyers and suppliers can transact freely, and so AMOR came to Africa RISE for support with a digital solution.

Looking to examples elsewhere, where this type of market is digitalised and successfully connects the actors involved in the recycling value chain, such as the KOLEKT app, Kolekt BV was commissioned to identify a digital waste management solution for Mozambique and to pilot the model.

The main problem the study tackled was the lack of transparency on solid waste transactions, limited pricing information, poor match between supply and demand of waste, high informality of transactions and the sector overall that makes most marginalised miss opportunities.

Conclusions

Impact

Pilot Project Impact - Over 6 months

The study, and pilot roll-out of the KOLEKT app resulted in its adoption by Mozambique’s only commercial plastic recycler, Topack.

Kolekt BV Director, Thierry Sanders, worked with AMOR Mozambique, to establish a chain of end-to-end users and sought to establish users including informal waste pickers, community recycling points, businesses such as restaurants and even a church, which are all now using the free app to trade the different types of waste they have collected with the country’s only commercial recycler, Topack.

Topack purchases two different types of plastic waste, HDPE and PP plastics, to make products, and to export for recycling. The KOLEKT app now allows Topack to gain additional information about its waste transactions, and as well as being used at its central processing site, and its collection vehicles.

“For Topack, the app enables more transparency to the transaction and business overall.” said, Tiago Cepeda, Topack.

“After ironing out some initial problems, and adjusting the app for local usage, the response to the app by both sellers and buyers was very positive, despite requiring a change in their practices. Sellers were quick to see how they could increase their income, or in the case of the church, to create an additional revenue stream through the sale of donated waste, and they were keen to participate. For the buyer, the app offers an easy way to identify and secure new sources of the plastic they want, and to better record the buying and selling of plastics by their field team.” Thierry Sanders commented.

Mozambique has an acute lack of recycling infrastructure and underfunded municipal waste collection, with less than 1.5% of the 700,000 tonnes of solid waste produced, being recycled. The proportion is even lower in rural areas due to a lack of collection facilities and waste is often burned or dumped on vacant land, and into rivers, lakes and ocean.

“For me it was easy to use the application because it makes it easier to sell to buyers of the waste”. KOLEKT app User

Over the course of the pilot the number of KOLEKT app users steadily increased from 10 users in May 2023 to 423 users in July and over 1,800 users at the end of October 2023. Over 380 tonnes of recyclables, averaging 70 kg and EUR 13 per transaction, were traded through the app.

During the six month project, Topack made over 4,800 transactions and gained over 1,500 users. These are actors throughout the Topack recycling supply chain, 90% are informal waste pickers, and approximately 80% are women.

Over the same period, AMOR made 600 transactions at its four EcoPoint buying centers. It registered 600 new sellers of which the most are also informal collectors, mainly women.

Mozambique does not have Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) legislation in place yet, but is exploring the benefits and complexities in the coming years to help tackle the waste problem.

The KOLEKT app is proving to be an efficient solution for countries that depend on the informal sector for waste management. As well as generating proof of purchase of recyclables, it registers the seller, the buyer, the GPS location and photos of the materials collected, helping recyclers to certify their environmental service. Once independently audited, recyclers are able to sell these certificates to the companies producing the waste, in order for them to comply with EPR type legislation or commitments. These certificates are called ‘plastic credits’ and are designed to make recycling more lucrative, thereby generating more demand for recyclable materials and boosting the circular economy.

Through Africa RISE, The learnings from Mozambique will now be shared with other countries in the Southern African (SADC) region, including Angola, which was originally going to be included in this pilot.

“I am so convinced by an app like KOLEKT for the circular economy, that I have hired a team of 5 staff to roll it out.” AMOR Founder, Stephane Temperman.

Final Report

Read the full Conclusions

This paper provides key insights from the work supported by Africa RISE on the implementation of the Environmental Tax on Packaging or Taxa Ambiental sobre a Embalagem (TAE) in Mozambique, highlighting the benefits such a system could bring to the Government of Mozambique on its journey to improve the waste management system in the country.

Contact the Team

Thierry Sanders

Kolekt BV Director (Netherlands)

Lucy Cox

Director of Communications (UK)

Email
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