Siel Environmental Services Limited

In Trinidad and Tobago, we have a huge littering culture and a lack of persona responsibility for the waste we generate. Education, specifically waste education has remained the same for more than 30 years and yet we expect to see changes. Our waste literacy campaign includes a fun and interactive online based learning platform for school aged children and consumers not only transforms the way they think and act towards waste but also on the harmful effects of plastic on the environment. It integrates social marketing, game theory and application development. Users will be able to get ideas on how various items can be reused, learn how they get separate their waste and home and earn points based on quantities collected which can be redeemed or tied into gift items. To have an environmentally literate society and develop a love of place again is how we see this helping change lives. 

According to the World Bank’s 2018 Waste report, Trinidad and Tobago has a waste generation rate of 1.5 kg of waste per person per day. This means that with a population of 1.4 million people, the nation generates 2,100 tonnes of waste each day. The 2015 National Waste Recycling Policy has stated that there is a significant and rapid reduction in landfill capacity as a consequence of the rapid growth of solid waste being generated. But unfortunately, not all the solid waste ends up in our landfills. Some of it ends up littered on streets and illegal dumping sites or thrown into drains and rivers courses. Our poor waste management practices and unsavoury dumping habits have contributed to increased flooding which wreaks social, economic and health consequences. Past and current information campaigns have proven to be ineffective as it lacked civic engagement, inclusion of the perspectives of beneficiaries and a framework to evaluate behaviour change.

Our mission is to transform the way people think and act towards waste so that they no longer view and treat waste as garbage but instead as a valuable resource that can provide tremendous economic benefits. Nationally, our project contributes to the achievement of the Government’s objective to establish a comprehensive waste and pollution management plan which will ensure healthy lives and improve well-being. The population, including children and youth will benefit from up-to-date and culturally relevant information which promotes improved environmental literacy, values and behaviours. This in turn results in positive impacts such as reduced littering, reduction in the spread of mosquito-diseases, and the reduction in man-made causes of flooding. Business will benefit by becoming more efficient and reducing their waste disposal costs.

Our solution will be a Public Education and Waste literacy campaign which includes:

A school-based peer education programme where well-trained and motivated youth will be engaged to design and undertake educational activities with peers. These activities will be school, community and region-specific based on unique needs. For this activity we will be working with schools to establish Eco/Sustainable Schools as the long term goal which students and teachers will take responsibility of. Each month we will monitor the activities of the school and annually convene for recognition and celebration of work done;

A waste efficiency programme for businesses where managers will be provided with information on how to make their enterprise eco-friendly. This will involve facilitating monthly workshops for business; and

An online learning platform that provides not only general information on waste management strategies for households but specifically how they can reduce their dependence and use of plastic waste. Utilizing social marketing, game theory and application development, users will also be able to learn how to reuse their plastics, learn how to effectively separate their waste by type/ source separation, record progress and be rewarded via points or gift items of particular value.

The main organization responsible for public education on waste management is the Solid Waste Management Company, a government agency straddled by bureaucracy and budget constraints. Their strategy has been distribution of information across traditional and social media. However, constructivist learning theories indicate that people learn best when they can construct their own knowledge, linking past experiences and cultural factors to new information. Our solution allows this.

Additionally, because of the high volume of information available, beneficiaries can become desensitized, distracted and even disconnected. By allowing the target group to “own” their message, we increase engagement and retention.
There has been significant effort in placing recycling bins at workplaces across the country. But without a programme to promote a change of organizational culture, many of these bins go unused or used improperly. Our solution will fill this gap by educating business on proper waste management.

Schools have also received recycling bins by another state agency called the Environmental Management Authority. However, these bins were dropped off with no real education and engagement on how to properly use them. We also do not encourage waste separation by type so our Plastics recovery facility receives mixed waste which requires additional manpower for sorting at increased costs to the State and tax payer.

The use of mobile technology and learning in an online, self paced environment has never been done for waste issues in the country before. We are the first to start and continue it.

Activities:

Online learning platform for consumers and businesses

Waste literacy programme including plastic emphasis - books, games, apps

Output:

Waste and environmentally literate society who makes better decisions and is knowledgeable about the effects of poor waste management and plastic use

Short term outcomes:

Knows about different waste types

Has an understanding of the environment and their role in it

Medium term outcomes:

Improved waste separation figures/rates

Increased behaviour change

Reduced littering of plastic bottles

Long term outcomes:

An engagaed and action oriented student and consumer population who separate their waste daily, understands the importance of doing it and champions others to do the same.

We would integrate the use of baseline data collected via online and paper-based surveys to determine current knowledge, attitudes and behaviours pre-implementation and repeated every 6 months to measure individual and geographic changes in each domain. For businesses, via a questionnaires and key-informant interviews, we would measure allocation towards waste/environmental activities and examine strategic plans. This will be over a 2-3-year period to demonstrate long term outcomes, evaluate shortcomings and make recommendations.

We are currently serving 2500 students and 20 households and this has been the same within a year using our current waste literacy programme which includes presentations, videos and physical games. In five years, we will serve 150,000 students and 500 households as we would have a series of books, games and mobile applications focused on changing the use and dependency on plastics.

Since we have just started to collect physical data outside of the reviews and surveys of our online classes and presentations, we are assessing the current state of knowledge, attitudes and behaviours pre-implementation collected via online and paper-based surveys and repeated every 6 months to measure individual and geographic changes in each domain. For businesses, via a questionnaires and key-informant interviews, we would measure allocation towards waste/environmental activities and examine strategic plans. 

From a social perspective, the use of social marketing and principles of persuasion to assess how the action of one affects those around them.Social media plays a huge role in this regard and the increase in our following also determines how many more have joined the journey.

In 2020, we have a financial goal of $100,000 gross income with 40% coming from our online learning platform and literacy programmes from sales and books, games and number of website hits/downloads. 

For our waste education programme, we expect to have developed the new waste character and have written, published and printed three (3) story books with their own games (one of which is 30% complete and the first of its kind in Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean) and to work with 26 primary schools across Trinidad and Tobago. We expect to have 50 businesses in our waste programmes (25 corporate, 25 SMMEs) to have diverted over 40 tonnes of plastic waste from the landfill sites. To have over 100 students in our online learning platform. To be able to hire 2 full time staff members, 1 part-time staff member and to grow our cadre of volunteers at our organisation.

Our main barriers are access to capital as we are registered as a for profit company (social entrepreneurship is not recognized here) and cannot tap into any grants which are available locally. We have been making income from our business streams however it has not been enough to hire full time staff.  Although we have 2 volunteers at present, our goal is to have at least 2-3 paid staff members within the next 5 years

Recycling is voluntary and without any legislation to make it mandatory, we depend on persons willingness to participate in the activities. Enforcement of the existing legislation also poses a hindrance to scaling our activities.  We do have a littering culture where people believe that if they do not litter, people won't have jobs which signifies a loss of love and patriotism for country. The market for green/eco friendly goods is slowly increasing. Legal costs are also quite high and most of us do not survive because we simply cannot meet the costs and requirements.

Financial: We have been charging for the services we offer to small businesses, corporate clients and our online courses although it is not yet consistent monthly. I (Sian) have a mentor who has been helping me work on this as well.

Legislation: We advocate for the implementation of legislation and provide our voice to changes in the law whenever we can. The good news is that people have been seeing the need to make a change because of the increased number of open dump sites all over the country and our increased issues with flooding as it directly affects their livelihood.

To offset legal costs, we barter for the exchange of services or pay via a payment plan. 

We believe education transcends generations so although these barriers exist, increased knowledge and awareness in new and innovative ways is a great start.

There is a great opportunity for expanding into Latin America and the Caribbean as a number of countries have been making huge strides and changes with respect to positive action toward the environment e.g. implementing bans on single use plastics, involving the use of disincentives. For the marketing of our services, we hope to work with governments and their Ministries in the implementation of our waste education and literacy programme as well as utilizing our network of professionals and the organisations they work for such as Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture, United Nations Environment Programme, United Nations Information Centre, Fulbright Hubert Humphrey fellowship, Senator Matthew Samuda (Jamaica) etc.Having a point of contact is a great entry point for us as they now become our champions in another country. 

Our next country to enter is St. Lucia and already have established a point of contact within the government of St. Lucia.

We would also be participating in international and Caribbean conferences as a means of exposure such as the Caribbean Water and Wastewater Association (CWWA)

Full time staff - 1

Part-time staff - 1

Volunteers - 2

In 2019, I had the vision to develop and launch an online learning forum on environmental topics. After completing the technical aspect of that initiative, I approached members of my family to provide the capital to get it implemented and became the first company to facilitate online training in this area in my country. What I learnt from that experience was that people do not invest in a product or service, but they invest in the person and her vision. I am qualified in my field, passionate about the cause and connected to a wide professional network. I believe that with time I will be able to leverage these relationships to advance the work of my organization. Also, I am able to reach people where they are regardless of social or educational background as I am open about my experiences including my failures. This presents me as authentic. 

One of the accomplishments that I am most proud of is being a recipient of the Kenneth Valley Foundation Progress Award for my work in environmentalism and advocacy. This involved leading and mentoring a group of young people for their plastic recycling project called My Last Bottle. This project was meant to be a launchpad for the collection of plastics bottles within a community in our capital city of Port of Spain. I was able to work alongside these young beneficiaries for 6 months where I utilized transformational leadership techniques to empower them to make their own decisions and work collaboratively. 

This year (2020) we are working on developing partnerships and have already started on the journey to work with a major supermarket chain called Massy Stores and Nestle. With Massy, we will be managing their organic waste and they have also expressed and interest in our book and game series. We would also be managing Nestle's organic waste and partnering with them for both our own and their Healthy Kids programme.

Our business model comes from:

One on one consulting with companies and providing customized programmes

Online courses in waste related issues such as composting, waste efficiency for small businesses

Sale of books and games in our Waste literacy programme

Speaking and staff training engagements

Sale of our Corporate organic waste management programme

Our path to financial sustainability comes from selling our services and products and donations and grants. Our aim this year is to also invite investment capital from an investor who has expressed interest in working with us. Our revenue model is mainly the Consulting model

One day my children may ask me, “When the natural environment was under threat, what did you do mummy?” If they do, I want to have clear, demonstrable evidence of my work and a legacy that they and other young people, who deserve a clean and safe environment, can be proud to inherit. When I was ten years old, I was paddling in the sea when I was hit in the face with a soggy pamper. That was my first experience with litter, and it has soiled the memory of that family outing to this day. The soggy pampers has multiplied since then as my country is on a path to a filthy future. But it can be reversed. My love for country, love for my family and commitment to maximize my talents keeps me committed to this cause.

Applying to the Rethink Plastic Challenge can help us overcome our financial challenges and expedite our processes and also provide mentorship support and guidance to us. It will also help us gain exposure on a global scale

United Nations Environment programme, Media outlets (TV and Radio), Local Regional Corporations, the Environmental Management Authority, Ministry of Public Utilities, Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Lab for social entrepreneurs