EcoPick

About 8% to 10% of our total oil supply goes to making plastic worldwide.Poor disposal of plastic and bad incineration practices are among the greatest silent processes damaging our environment. According to the CIEL report, U.S. emissions from plastics incineration in 2015 were 5.9 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent. Based on projections from the World Energy Council, if plastics production and incineration increase as expected, greenhouse gas emissions will increase to 49 million metric tons by 2030 and 91 million metric tons by 2050. Plastics are highly consumable by the Ugandan population however they are causing environmental degradation due to poor way they are disposed off. Depletion of forests due to high consumerism of timber/wood products. As a result ECOPICK utilizes plastic as an alternative to timber(wood) through its innovative technology processes that convert the waste plastic to human consumable products used in various industries including the construction Industry.

ECOPICK is a plastic waste management tech startup that allows slum dwellers to collect and use waste plastics as a form of financial resource in exchange for cash. An innovative, chemical-free and energy-efficient technology is used to transform post-consumer waste into plastic poles, lumbers and tiles which replaces expensive wooden timbers!, thus reducing plastic plus marine pollution, deforestation rates, and the effects of climate change. ECOPICK mobile application allows urban households to request services to collect their waste plastics. Some of the products include plastic lumber fence poles which are sold and the excess recyclate is sold for export. In addition to providing a plastic waste management solution for Uganda, we provide an alternative to timber thus saving our forests and further mitigate climate change. The posts are 6 to 10 ft in length, circular, 2 – 4 inches diameter, or square, 2 – 4 inches cross-section. They do not rot, are termite resistant, outlast timber. In addition our Plastic solar roof tiles are locally made from up-cycled plastic porridge mixed with poultry eggshell waste, pressed using injection molding technology to form 1.5ft roof tiles, incorporated with custom-built solar panels for emission free energy provision and sustainable roofing to low income households.  Our roof tiles are served in form of a Kit consisting 25 roof tiles totaling up to 50watts attached with a 12 volt battery storage system in a complete circuit to form a single kit that cost 125 dollars, backed with a comprehensive service bundle of loan linkage and flexible financing plans, households save 800 dollars annually on both energy and construction costs.

Construction Industry especially for fencing. Hotel Industry for providing interior plastic alternatives to the wood.

Taking an example of the local construction industry in Uganda, We heavily rely on the use of wood products such as timber used for fencing and roofing. Our plastic equivalents do the job better and are resistant to rot, water and termites which normally affect their wooden alternatives. Through adoption of our cheaper products we will reduce the need for using timber hence reduce the deforestation rates as our new alternatives are long lasting and cost efficient in the long run.

Wooden furniture is great for interiors in the hotel and housing industry. The brown rustic look makes doors , dressing mirrors , beds look amazing. Using this taste preference, our research and development team created look alikes made out of waste plastic. The plastic alternatives outlast the wooden ones while reducing the need for wood.

EcoPick not only addresses the need to properly ensure plastic waste is collected but it also gives the waste plastic a second life of usage . Our overall impact seeks to ensure plastic is no longer dumped in normal waste bins and remove it from the normal organic waste that finds its way to the dumping pits.

Our solution is community centric as we focus on the human resource from the slums in the urban centers. Hunger and lack of access to medicine is very rampant. We provide a lifeline to the slum dwellers who collect and use waste plastics as a form of financial resource in exchange for cash or access to our mobile health partners. In our team we have 3 out of 6 founding members who grew up in slums and easily identify with the challenges these communities face. The lack of opportunity to jobs renders most of these single mothers and youth poor and hungry . Without access to resources it leads to moral decay as many either engage in prostitution , robbery and drug abuse. EcoPick prioritizes employing the single mothers , youth so as to give them an opportunity to earn from a meaningful job hence improving their economic situation. Our workforce is  geographically located next to the high plastic consumer hotspots hence making collection easy for them.

Our core team is multi-cultural and well resourced as we have varying talents that ensure our core mandate and vision is constantly being refined and improved through their operational processes and procedures.

If selected by Solve, our team is keen in accessing the global solve network so as to interact with mentors and receive strategic advice from them that will further help us improve our technical , monitoring and evaluation practices so as to enable us properly measure our impact.

Joining this network will help us interact with fellow peers who are finding innovative ways to help us save the earth's climate. We hope to interact with people in the network who are big on creating solutions that could reverse and mitigate climate change.

After collection of plastic waste using both the software and on ground techniques, ECOPICK uses environmentally friendly plastic extrusion technology that uses profiled waxy innovation in the extrusion process set at different temperatures, the technology helps plastic materials of different polymers reach their melting point quickly while retaining their original stability, helping to use less energy which lowers production costs, enabling the cheap production of plastic construction materials such as lumbers. Our production is a one-stop solution to address the issues of waste management, housing crisis and energy outcries faced by low income households.In addition to the plastic tiles and lumbers, our plastic solar roof tiles are locally made from up-cycled plastic porridge mixed with poultry eggshell waste, pressed using injection molding technology to form 1.5ft roof tiles, incorporated with custom-built solar panels for emission free energy provision and sustainable roofing to low income households.  Our eco roof tiles are served in form of a Kit consisting 25 roof tiles totaling up to 50watts attached with a 12 volt battery storage system in a complete circuit to form a single kit that cost 125 dollars, backed with a comprehensive service bundle of loan linkage and flexible financing plans, households save 800 dollars annually on both energy and construction costs.

Uganda consumes up to 600 metric tonnes of plastic waste daily however only 6% of it is collected. Our major goal for within the next five years is to increase the plastic collection to double digit percentage. We believe with our current efforts if our organization grows we can be able to account to collect close to 60% of that daily plastic waste. In the coming year we look forward to growing our human resource in regards to get more collectors of plastic and reach above 500 personnel.

One of our core mandates is to ensure we help the world achieve SDG 12 that ensures responsible consumption and production. It addresses the global challenge to integrate environmental sustainability with economic growth and welfare by decoupling environmental degradation from economic development. Specifically, ECOPICK is guided by SDG Target 12.5 which is: “By 2030, substantially reduce waste generation through prevention, reduction, recycling and reuse".

In our daily operational analysis of our our work impact we have specific indicators we use to measure our product.

The first being the amount of plastic waste we get from our collection agents.

Second is the amount of construction materials we produce versus the plastic waste collected.

Third we measure the amount we payments we offer to our collection agents to ensure that we are actively enable them earn well to live a life above the poverty line.

Through accelerated collection of the plastic waste we will be able able to achieve the following outcomes;

1. Cleaner environment
2. Provision of local raw materials for our products
3. Economic empowerment of the impoverished youth and women.

After collection we will proceed to produce our products such as plastic tiles, lumbers and our special eco plastic solar roof tiles. This processes will be able to achieve the following outcomes;

1. Reduced demand for wooden construction materials hence reducing demand for timber and general need for deforestation.
2. Reduced construction expenses for the low income families in Uganda.
3. Reduced household energy expenses for low income families as they will be using solar power
4. Reduced demand to join hydro powered electricity grid hence saving trees that would be use to make the transmission poles.

After collection of plastic waste using both the software and on ground techniques, ECOPICK uses environmentally friendly plastic extrusion technology that uses profiled waxy innovation in the extrusion process set at different temperatures, the technology helps plastic materials of different polymers reach their melting point quickly while retaining their original stability, helping to use less energy which lowers production costs, enabling the cheap production of plastic construction materials such as lumbers. Our production is a one-stop solution to address the issues of waste management, housing crisis and energy outcries faced by low income households. In addition to the plastic tiles and lumbers, our plastic solar roof tiles are locally made from up-cycled plastic porridge mixed with poultry eggshell waste, pressed using injection molding technology to form 1.5ft roof tiles, incorporated with custom-built solar panels for emission free energy provision and sustainable roofing to low income households.

At EcoPick we assessed our partner communities and identified women and youth as vulnerable. During our recruitment of people from the community , we have set out a 60% working rate for the women. Most women who stay in these slumy areas are very impoverished and suffer from domestic violence when they ask the partners for livelihood to support their children or medical care. As noted earlier the waste plastics collected by these hardworking women will be used as a form of financial resource in exchange for cash or women hence improving their household incomes and medical status.

EcoPick Business Model:

Key Partners:

1. Potential firms to sell products
2. Volunteers or firms that are focusing on technology advancement
3. Local waste firms will to work together
4. Potential Donors or sponsors that support environment conservation

Key Activities:

1. Waste gathering
2. Waste sorting
3. Processing raw materials
4. Production
5. Distribution
6. Sales and Marketing
7. Partnership and strategic alliance
8. Research and Development

Value Propositions:

1. Environmental benefit
2. Competitive Prices
3. Functional

Customer Relationships:

1. Word of Mouth Marketing
2. Web Based and social media engagement
3. Establishing and maintaining community in supporting environment
4. Loyalty Programs
5. Seminars

Customer Segements:

1. Mass market(construction, real estate, Agriculture)
2. B2B market

Key Resources:

1. Human Labor
2. EcoPick mobile app
3. Plastic Waste
4. Extrusion Machines
5. Molding Machines

Channels:

1. Retail Stores
2. Website and Social Media
3. Production Site

Cost Structures

1. Raw Material Cost
2. Operational Cost
3. Distribution Cost
4. Sales and Marketing Cost

Revenue Streams:

1. Sale of Products
2. Sale of recyclable waste
3. Donors & Sponsors

Since inception, Defining Technologies has experimented with a range of products and income streams in order to test the market and to push the brand into a wide range of sectors. Though this was also beneficial in
testing the capabilities of Greenwood (recycled plastic products) as a material, there is now a need to narrow down to a standard portfolio of
furniture, lifestyle  and construction products.

Sales of low value addition boards for decking, cladding, fencing and screening will be increased as a percentage of income portfolio to a standard 70%. 

This is to ensure sustainable turnover within the business and to ensure that baseline costs are covered. Rather than the current 40%, bespoke design will then be reduced as a percentage of the income portfolio year-on-year to eventually take up only 5% of the business.

Concurrently, from 2022 the enterprise will focus on consolidation of the products into a single catalogue of lines or ranges of the shelf (OTS) products.

 Rather than relying on repeat custom on popular products, these OTS items will be marketed accordingly through a designated showroom in Kampala.

The standardized product range will enable the enterprise to reduce design time, increase efficiency in production and generate greater turnover in the business. This will allow for 5% of business to continue to create bespoke
products, but with a greater focus on research and development for new sectors within Uganda.

Defining Technologies intends to use this agile section of the business to explore in particular opportunities to market Greenwood products to the burgeoning construction industry. 

The final 5% of the business will ultimately be generated by tours of the Defining Technologies facility. Already gathering interest from local and international NGOs, this involves offering school children tours of the facility so that they can learn about plastic and recycling.

Though this is only ever expected to be a minor income stream, it is one which helps Defining Technologies to fulfil its core commitment to education and wider awareness around plastic waste.

We received USD 5,000 USD from the Tony Elumelu Foundation in 2020 that helped us in the initial company registration and Land acquisition.

Using equity and current assets owned by the company we accessed debt financing to help us purchase the production equipment and inital operational capital.

In 2021 we had total revenue of 15,000 USD.