Innovative Plastic Reward System (iPRES)

iPRES (Innovative Plastic Reward System) is a novel technology aimed at reducing the poverty rate among undergraduates in Nigeria through plastic mop-up incentivization.

Plastic pollution is currently one of the global challenges contributing to the world’s climate and environmental menace. Plastic pollution not only limits its adverse effects to land alone but has affects our ocean and aquatic environment at large like a hemorrhagic fever. According to reports from our World in data, over 8 million tons of plastic find their way into the ocean yearly, hampering aquatic productivity, interrupting different aquatic ecosystems, and contributing to the depletion of marine resources and loss of aquatic lives among many adverse effects.  

In Nigeria, plastics are ubiquitous; from landfills to drainage channels and aquatic environment, posing threat to the immediate environment and aquatic lives. Nigeria is sitting ninth and second position among the top polluters of plastic globally and in Africa respectively (Our Word in Data, 2015). This diatribe affects almost everyone in Nigeria irrespective of class, location, economic status or age; from microplastics in the placenta of a newborn baby, contributing to environmental pollution, blocking drainage channels which sometimes is responsible for flooding in some locations, degradation of aquatic landscape, to defacing of campuses through incessant disposal many others.  

In Nigeria over 20 states out of 36 states have weak or no systems to support the recycling of plastic, low engagement of the citizens to encourage plastic retrieval and limited structures to develop the capacity of the younger generation in the states to address plastic pollution. One of these states is Ondo state, in the southwestern region of the country. 

The innovative Plastic Reward System (iPRES) is a solution that utilizes technology, youth engagement and incentivization to mitigate plastic pollution and reduce the poverty rate among undergraduate students in Nigeria.

This solution aims at reducing the poverty rate among tertiary students in Nigeria by engaging them in monetized exercises to reduce the amount of discarded plastic materials from the environment.

The solution comprises three major components:

1. iPRES agents community - comprising of undergraduate students retrieving discarded plastic through plastic Mop-ups 

2. A low data application - the medium of contact

3. Plastic reward system - incentivization plan to reward the iPRES agents.

How does this works?

In simple terms; iPRES agents perform Plastic Mop-ups as groups or individuals to retrieve discarded plastic materials within their campuses or a neighbouring community, login to the iPRES mobile application to submit their mop-up entry in exchange for any incentives; foodstuff, cash prices or educational materials at the iPRES menu. The regional collector gets notified through the application, connects with the iPRES agent(s), and delivers the incentive in exchange for the plastics.

It utilises mobile application software to connect with our beneficiaries.

Our solution is tailored to serve undergraduate students in Nigeria starting with one institution per time.

Undergraduates are students who are undergoing a part-time or full-time course at a tertiary institution to earn a degree. In Nigeria, undergraduates are not fully represented in the labour market and industrial staff collections, this is due to their limited time to engage in industrial activities, skillsets, capacity and knowledge. While undergoing their studies, the majority of undergraduate students depend on their parents, guardians, relatives and friend to meet their basic needs, only a few are able to create online businesses, which sometime even distract them from their primary focus while in school.

iPRES will help reduce the poverty rate among undergraduates in Nigeria and fill their knowledge gap on plastic pollution by;

1. Improving their standard of living through the provision of funds, foodstuffs and other materials in exchange for plastics.

2. Develop their capacity to address plastic pollution through access to plastic creativity workshops where they would be trained and introduced to skillsets of converting plastics to wealth.

3. Enhance their understanding of plastic pollution through access to educational materials that address plastic pollution on the iPRES mobile application.

4. Introduce them to a large community of youths where ideas can be birthed, developed, transferred and converted to income-generating ventures.

Paul Ayomide Eweola - Project Lead (He/Him/His): Paul Ayomide Eweola is the founder and Executive Director of Aquaword. He has over 4 years of experience and certifications in Project Management, strategic leadership, community engagement and Team building. Paul has led, managed and coordinated projects across different organizations in Nigeria sponsored by credible organizations such as the National Geographic Society, Afri-Plastic, Government of Canada and Protect Our Planet Movement. He has coordinated and supervised hundreds of students to reach over 10,000 undergraduates in more than 10 tertiary institutions in Nigeria through advocacies, behavioural-structured projects, events, campaigns, clean-ups, and community enagement among many others.    

Mayokun Iyaomolere - Operations Manager (He/Him/His): Mayokun Iyaomolere is an environmentalist with over 6 years of experience in administrative management, project management and community engagement. He currently leads one of the largest undergraduate student campus network in Nigeria (Plogging Nigeria). He is skilled in developing operation and implementation plans for projects and special operations. He will be in charge of coordinating activities per different phases of the project and coordinating other project managers. He will monitor and track the progress per time during the project.

Sinmiloluwa Okunade - Content Manager (She/Her): Sinmiloluwa is a creative writer and strategic team player who possesses good communication skills. She will create contents required for different activities of the project and work with the lead designer to build content for the web application. 

Theophilus Ekunusi - Lead Designer: Theophilus is a front-end engineer with over 4 years of experience in design using Figma, Photoshop, and Illustrator and 2 years of experience in Engineering using HTML, CSS, ReactJS, NextJS, NodeJS, Git, C, Python, Linux. He is skilled in creating visually appealing designs using Figma and Photoshop, implementing responsive layouts using HTML and CSS, building dynamic user interfaces using ReactJS and NextJS, and developing server-side logic using NodeJS. He has experience working on various projects such as fintech platforms, BNPL (Buy Now Pay Later) platforms, Entertainment Platforms and web-based applications. He is also familiar with Agile development methodologies.

He will coordinate the development of the iPRES mobile application.

Atuah Bridget - Finance Manager: Bridget volunteers with Aquaworld as the finance director; she builds the organization's yearly cash flow. She will document the expenses and income made during the project.  

Aquaworld has a community of volunteers known as the Timeout team, over 80% of this community comprises students from over 10 tertiary institutions. We have not carried out a formal research to engage our beneficiaries and users,  but we have engaged them through our hub discussions to understand their challenges regards plastic pollution and meeting their basic needs as students. Aquaworld holds monthly meetings with our Timeout team, during some of these meetings we request feedback about the Plastic Mop-Ups done in their hubs; some of the students who participates in the exercise lament about the low access and unavailability of plastic collectors or recyclers to retrieve plastic collected during the exercise, limiting their ability to retrieve large quantities of plastics. On the other hand, students within our network send messages to the Hub leads notifying them about their showing interest in any vacant positions across their campuses that can provide them with funds to sustain them in school. Hence the ideation of iPRES to reward students that are already committed to retrieving plastic from the environment and attracting more into the context. 

iPRES address the issue of plastic pollution through the following approaches

1. Easy Access: an iPRES agent after a plastic-mop can either log in with their phone or a friend’s to submit their entry any time and anywhere. 

2. Capacity Building and Youth Empowerment: “while a school of thought believes that knowledge is power and another believes that rather action is power”, iPRES through educational materials readily available on the mobile application will enhance the knowledge of the iPRES community on plastic pollution alongside involve them in actions to reduce plastic pollution in the society.

3. Poverty Alleviation: “Volunteers can never be paid no matter the amount but they can be appreciated and motivated”. The plastic incentivisation system of the projects will help the iPRES agents meet some of their essential needs while in school. 

4. Easy model for Ocean Plastic advocacy: I am part of the school of thought that believes that the best way to pass knowledge is to show or practicalize. The project adopts a system that goes beyond sensitizing the younger generation about plastic pollution to giving them first-hand experience with this global diatribe and involve them in simple actions that can be taken to address this problem.

iPRES will not only influence the plastic market value chain by supplying more plastic materials for recycling purposes but will promote a more sustainable environment in the locations implemented.  

Over the next year, iPRES should achieve the following goals:

1. Launch a pilot phase of the iPRES project at The Federal University of Technology, Akure in Ondo state: This project is still in the ideation and planning phase. After securing funds, the project team will launch the solution on a small scale starting with just one institution. This will enable us to introduce the solution to at least 5,000 students within the campus, test all of the components of the project and prepare us to expand to other institutions. 

2. Empower 5 undergraduate students as iPRES collectors and improve their capacity as data analysts: In the implementation phase of the project, a call will be made for interested students to apply as iPRES collectors (a part-time paid role). Students with little or no understanding of plastic sorting, auditing and data analysis but demonstrate commitment to the problem the solution is trying to solve will be recruited into the role. This will be our first step to improving the standard of living of undergraduate students and empowering them with skillsets that will develop their capacity for future opportunities.  

3. Reduce the poverty rate among 5-10% of the undergraduate population in The Federal University of Technology Akure: The targeted institution for the pilot phase comprises 15,000 students of which 13,000 are undergraduates (Wikipedia 2022). Launching the project in the institution, we will create both physical (organize an iPRES opening grand event on campus in collaboration with the school management and organise campaigns within the campus using our volunteer network in the institution to reach more people) and virtual awareness (radio jingles, advertisement on social media platform that comprises of our target users). This will enable us to reach at least 50% of the total population and involve at least 1,000 students in the project in the first year. 

4. Retrieve at least 100 tons of discarded plastics in Ondo state: The iPRES agents will carry out Plastic Mop-ups to retrieve discarded plastic within their environment. With each iPRES agent able to retrieve at least 100kg within 12 months, 1,000 students will help achieve the goal of at least 100,000kg (100 tonnes within a year). Using the iPRES menu on the mobile app, the agents can exchange retrieved plastics with appropriate prizes.   

5. Train 200 undergraduate students on the conversion of Plastic Waste to Wealth:  iPRES not only committed to making short-term impacts but also aims at leaving a long-term imprint in the lives of our target audiences. To this effect, through the project, we would organize 4 sets of iPRES workshops to train a total of 200 students on how to convert plastic waste to wealth.

iPRES major component is the iPRES mobile application. The mobile application will be created using flutter or reactnative.

Through iPRES we would serve at least 1,000 students when it is launched in the first year. 

1. Financial barrier: Capital to start up this project, hence why I am applying for this challenge.

2. Location to accumulate the retrieved plastic: This will be easily avoided when funds is secured.

3. Securing partnership with university management.

Our proposed partners are:

Ondo state Environmental Agency and protection -   Capacity building of the iPRES commuity and purchase of plastics from the iPRES team.

Manpershon recycling limited - purchase of plastic from the iPRES team

Planet 3R - Workshop and Capacity Building; Planet 3R will be engaged to teach the iPRES workshop attendees about making fashionable products with plastic waste.

Plogging Nigeria - Resource Development: Plogging Nigeria will be engaged to create an online training resource that will be made readily available on the education forum of the iPRES app.

U-recycle Initiative Africa - Resource Development: U-recycle Initiative Africa will be engaged to create an online training resource that will be made readily available on the education forum of the iPRES app.

Africar- Construction of the iPRES collection vehicle.

Unilever - Supply of foodstuff to be used as incentives.

The beneficiaries of iPRES are undergraduate students who sign up to become iPRES agents.

iPRES' key customers are recycling companies and organizations who utilize plastic materials to make products.

Through the iPRES mobile application, our beneficiaries will be able to place orders to submit plastic materials and select their preferred products on the iPRES menu.

The plastic materials submitted by iPRES agents will be accumulated and sold to the aforementioned customers to generate revenue. 

Our beneficiaries are constantly looking for opportunities to improve their standard of living on campus while our customers are looking for organizations that can supply raw materials (in large quantities) to support their operations. Our solution as a market intermediary makes us valuable to both parties. 

Revenue Model: Market Intermediary

Plastics submitted by iPRES agents will be sold to generate a regular inflow to sustain the operation of the project. 

Grants will be applied for to expand the solution to other locations.