Wastezon

Through real-time e-waste traceability and reverse logistics, the Wastezon app links households with recycling actors and manufacturers to transact e-waste.

With a vision of creating a waste-free world, the Wastezon app assists the recycling actors (repairers, scrappers, industries) to outsource their raw materials while on the other hand helping the households (domestic & institutional) to get rid of their e-waste by selling them. Backed by mineralogical laser scan technology, the app detects the mineralogical content of e-waste, providing an array of minerals contents and their provenance levels, hence allowing households to get price transparency. The app also assists them in proper sorting, tracing the e-waste materials throughout the value chain and providing route optimization for recyclers for their e-waste reverse logistics. Wastezon works hand in hand with logistics partners to transport e-waste materials from the households to recyclers’ premises. 

With an annual 2 million tons of e-waste generated in Africa, only 20% of them are collected and recycled (UNEP,2017). The e-waste management industry is dominated by e-waste scrapers and households who live under 5 dollars per day. Yet, they don’t get transparency when transacting their e-waste with recycling actors as the transaction is based on the weight rather than the mineralogical content of e-waste. From our research, we found that a waste scrapper earns less than 0.3$ for a mobile phone scrap whose mineralogical content could cost more than 10$, highly indicating the need to adopt e-waste mineralogical content as a value measurement rather than e-waste weight.  Moreover, the lack of e-waste separation at the source leads to inconvenience to recyclers as well as unoptimized routes where recyclers spend a long time and high costs navigating through the saturated neighbourhoods. Manufacturers that want to implement reverse logistics (electronics product/e-waste take back) for remanufacturing are unable to trace the products through the supply chain due to unreliability of value chain participants, lack of real-time data and inefficiency logistics coordination. 

• End-consumers: Low & middle-income households and businesses that generate e-waste but lack access to the e-waste market and price transparency of e-waste. 
• Recycling actors: From recycling industries to refurbishers and dismantlers, recycling actors face inconvenience in verifying the e-waste value, sorting, and collecting them, 
• E-waste transportation companies:  they spend a long-time and costs navigating in the neighbourhoods. due to saturation of households and lack of scheduled waste collection slots. 
• Manufacturers: who want to buy back electronics products from their consumers for repurposing and remanufacturing but lack effective product traceability throughout the value chain. 

Wastezon provides an integrated platform that connects all aforementioned beneficiaries, allowing end-consumers (households and businesses ) to transact their e-waste or repairable electronics with recycling actors (industries, refurbishers, dismantlers, and repairers). Through the wastezon app, they are able to identify the mineralogical content of their e-waste, hence getting transparent prices, track the e-waste materiality and provenance, and arrange collection in optimized routes and schedules

Before the 1st launch in 2019, we conducted market research that involved 76 households and 10 recycling actors. The purpose of the market research was to conduct the idea feasibility study and gauge the perception of the potential users. We used the insights for both product development and business model iteration. 

In 2021, we run a survey for both our current users and potential users to understand the impact of the Wastezon app and amass the ideas and insights for possible product expansion strategies. The insights collected from this research allowed us to iterate the product in preparation for the launch of the second version of the product. 

So far, over 1800 Rwandan Households, 150 e-scrappers, 3 recycling Industries use our app, and over 580 tons of electronic waste (e-waste) have been transacted on our app, hence diverting over an equivalent to 2826.42 metric tons of avoided CO2 emissions. More importantly, we have helped the households to earn a monthly average of 15 dollars per month, earned from the e-scraps and electronics they sold to recyclers and repairers on the Wastezon app.

The app relies on blockchain technology to certify and give each specific e-waste the identity and process the data that is used by recyclers and repairers in tracking the waste materials. Such technology goes along with the image laser scan, to provide traceability, where relevant data such as manufacturing dates, material provenance, and composition as well as the e-waste’s current abnormalities are generated, and assist in matchmaking the seller with a buyer.

• Currently, we have 1827 households (both domestic and institutional), 150 repairers and e-scrappers as well as 3 recycling industries. 
• Between 2022 and 2023: We plan to expand our user base to at least 4500 households, 800 repairs & recycling actors, 80 recycling industries as well as 25 manufacturers. 

Over 580 tons of electronic waste (e-waste) have been transacted on our app, hence diverting over an equivalent to 2826.42 metric tons of avoided CO2 emissions. Our users (households) earned a monthly average of 15 dollars per month, earned from the e-scraps and electronics they sold to recyclers and repairers on the Wastezon app. Between 2022 and 2023, we want to facilitate the transaction of at least 1500 tons of e-waste which will divert over 7000 tons of carbon emissions. 

The Wastezon app’s core services align with 3 principles of the circular economy, Reuse, Remanufacture, and Repair, which reduces or diverts the waste that would otherwise end up in the landfills. Thus, by diverting waste from going to landfills, Wastezon is reducing a significant amount of emissions that the East African landfills release. By providing the electronics and scraps reuse, remanufacturing, and repairing services, Wastezon is mitigating climate change by reducing the emissions that would be released by the waste in the landfills or in the resource extraction and processing of new raw materials. In short, at Wastezon, we are empowering consumers and manufacturers to address and prepare for climate change by changing their consumptions behaviour, enabling circularity and designing out waste from the economy.

Our impact monitoring and evaluation strategy lie on both social and environmental aspects: 

• Climate mitigation: We track the equivalent carbon emissions of e-waste that were transacted on the app that otherwise would have gone to the landfills (SDG 12 and SDG 13). 
• Income: We track the income households get through the e-waste sales as an income stream that could improve their livelihoods. (SDG 1)
• Health and wellbeing: We observe the areas that have been affected by poor e-waste disposal and assess the reduction of e-waste.  (SDG 3 and SDG 11)

Fundraising: We are facing challenges in fundraising for our scalability plans. We need support; funders linkages and assistance in preparing the company to be investment-ready. 

Talent Acquisitions: As we scale, we need committed talents as resources that can boost our marketing capabilities, product developments and operations management. However, we face challenges in talent acquisitions and retention, 

Our team has over 30 years of combined experience in a wide range of backgrounds including; Business Management, Software Engineering, Machine Learning, Data Science, Environmental Sustainability, Business Development and Finance. The founders have founded similar environmental projects before founding Wastezon and developed industry expertise in waste management and circular economy. 

Above all, we are mission-driven. The idea of creating Wastezon stemmed from a landfill accident that almost took the life of our best friend. We are driven by a passion for launching innovative technologies that can create a waste-free world

Wastezon partners with waste logistic companies for both local waste transportations as well as shipping of e-waste to recyclers or manufacturers abroad. 

We also have strategic partners such as Awesomity Lab who provide expertise and technical support in product development. 

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As part of our scalability plan, we want to launch the Wastezon E-repairing centre.  In the proposed project, we seek to establish a refurbishment and repair services centre where we will train the youthful women refugees' technical skills on electronic repairs. Through 3 months of training, 40 unemployed women refugees will go through robust electronics repairing and refurbishment training ranging from electronic systems, direct and alternating currents, circuit boards and electronics technology schematics. They will tap into the electronics materials uploaded on our app, to practically apply their knowledge with an aim of graduating with real-world e-repairing and refurbishment experience. After 4 months, such youth refugees will become trainers of trainers who will upskill and train other youth refugees.

Due to persistent political instability and numerous conflicts in Central Africa and the Great Lakes Region, Rwanda has been a destination for refugees for decades. The socio-economic integration into Rwandan society is, therefore, a crucial issue. Although basic needs, including food, primary healthcare and access to schooling are met, further-reaching services such as support for business start-ups, entrepreneurship training, income-generating activities and promotion of employability and professional integration are insufficient. At the same time, youth unemployment and underemployment are among Rwanda’s main challenges. As a result, the economic inclusion of refugees and inhabitants of neighbouring communities is often inadequate.

The proposed project is focused on meeting three key objectives namely: - Improve refugee’s skills on electronic repair, provide consumers with a one-stop-shop for repair and resell /reuse and finally Collect about 20 tonnes of electronic waste or divert an equivalent of 500 tonnes of carbon emissions from the environment.

Objective one: - Train 40 women refugees on electronic repair skills in a period of eight months (ie 20 refugees per 4 months period). We plan to retain at least 15 of them and assist the rest to start their own repairing shops. 

Objective 2:- Provide the Wastezon consumers with a repair centre.

Objective 3:- Divert 500 tonnes of carbon emissions from the environment by repairing at least 40 tons of electronics.