Cataki app

Undervalued and underpaid, waste pickers are responsible for almost 90% of the residue that ends up being recycled in Brazil. Cataki is an app that connects these men and women to new sources of income that in turn can improve their quality of life.

Cataki is available for free for Android and iOS and has already been downloaded 220,000 times. With work done on the ground by ambassadors of the project, the platform has reached more 3,000 waste pickers in 540 Brazilian cities. There is still a long way to go in order to reach the estimated 800,000 Brazilian waste pickers.  

If properly scaled, the app could truly incorporated waste pickers, the most vulnerable link, in the global recycling industry. Given them the possibility to be acknowledge as the environmental heroes they are.

Waste pickers are an invisible and undervalued part of the global recycling industry. In Brazil alone their numbers are estimated to be between 400-800,000 people.

They suffer with low pay for the service of collecting recyclable materials and  as the weak link in the reverse logistics chain. They don't have access to waste producers and even less opportunity to sell the waste collect without depending on a various intermediaries.

Cataki is an app available for Android and iOS that connects waste pickers to people and organizations that need to properly dispose of their waste.

Through a simple and intuitive platform, waste pickers can connect to people interested in hiring their services.  On the background, the app keeps waste pickers contacts up to date so they can benefit from the platform even if they have a simple mobile phone. Prices are set without no intermediaries and no fees are charged, all the money goes straight to waste pickers.

Waste pickers represent a global phenomenon, men and women that make a living by transporting residue and giving new life to materials that would otherwise go to landfills.

Brazilians produce around 400 kilos of waste daily and only 3% goes to recycling. Of this tiny portion, waste pickers deal with for 90% of the total amount that ends up actually being recycled. The Movimento de Pimpadores has being working to make their importance visible since 2012. We formed a network of artists and volunteers and local ambassadors that dedicate their work to improve the working conditions and quality of life of waste pickers.

Since Cataki was only an idea, we have worked closely with waste pickers to understand their needs. The development and improvements to the app are always tested and approved by waste pickers before being published. So far, we have been able to improve the earnings of waste pickers that use the app. The average increase in income for those that push their own wagons was of 82%. The ones that work with motorized vehicles had a 64% increase in their earnings.

Extremely economically vulnerable, waste pickers need access to stable sources of income. Cataki removes barriers of entry to the digital world, making it possible for workers, that are sometimes illiterate, to connect to new clients and have access to a new and untapped market place. 

We live in a world marked by inequality and where the most vulnerable populations lack access to technology that can improve their living and working standarts.

Cataki has being able to help bridge the gap between waste pickers, a group of workers that is present everywhere in the world, and technology. The app does that in a seamless way, that is able to incorporate tech in the lives of waste pickers and, most importantly, to incorporate their needs and their vision in a technological solution.

Cataki is a simple technology to connect people. Much like Uber does with independent drivers and passengers, the app connects waste pickers with people that need their waste dealt with.

There are a few major differences to Uber and similar platforms. Most importantly, Cataki does not charge workers with a commission. And the app is also able to connect waste pickers, with very limited access to technology. The app is not dependable in an stable internet connection, on the part of the waste pickers. These workers can be connected to clients through phone calls, transferring the burden of paying for an expensive internet connection to the hiring party.

Cataki has already been downloaded 220,000 times, in 540 different Brazilian cities and is part of the waste management solution in Colombia. The app has, so far, benefited more than 3,000 waste pickers. The whole process, and its simplicity, can be seen in news piece telling the history of the app.

And independent consultant company gathered numbers of the impact (shown above) that most waste pickers saw a significant increase in their monthly income due to the app. The numbers are 82,6% to those working with push wagons and 64,7% for those with some kind of motorized vehicle.

The long-term goal for the Movimento de Pimpadores is to acknowledge the importance, improve the quality of life and the standard of living for wast pickers. We do so in various ways, by building a network of artists and volunteers that upgrade waste pickers' wagons, making sure they work properly and that also look good. We also act through the app Cataki, where waste pickers can have access to new sources of income, by connecting to new clients to their services in a technological environment.

These men and women are estimated to be around 400,000 to 800,000 people, responsible for dealing with 90% of all the waste that ends up being recyclable in Brazil.

With more than 220,000 downloads the app Cataki was able to connect to 3,000 waste pickers in 540 Brazilian cities. Waste pickers that are active on the app had a 63% increase in their income. When waste picker have to opportunity to organize themselves individually, removing intermediaries, their income tends to increase. And also, when they have a working an artsy wagon to go around town, they can are better treated, with more dignity and being acknowledge for the value contribution they do to society.

We currently serve 3,000 waste pickers.

We estimate a minimum growth of 20% for the next year, reaching 3,600 waste pickers by the end of 2021.

Until 2025, we believe we can reach an even higher growth by expanding the use of the app beyond Brazil. A conservative estimate would be reaching three times more workers, around 9,000 people.

Our goal for the next year is to consolidate the impact we have already seen in the live of all the waste pickers using the platform. We currently reach 3,000 waste pickers only in Brazil, but they are estimated to be as many as 800,000.

We are currently on track to expand the use of the app to Mozambique, through the work of local partners in the country.

We believe Cataki is an technology that can be easily used anywhere in the world. For the next year we plan to have a translated version of the app in at least one more language other than English.

In the next five years, with the growing support we have been getting, we can expand to more countries and have the app used by local groups in a few of the countries where we already have organizations similar to ours.

Since our solution is based on working closely with waste pickers, reaching out to where they are and actively understanding their needs, we are a very work intensive enterprise.

We have already secure funding to achieve our goals for the next year, expanding our reach in Brazil. In order to expand the use of the app globally, we need to work in the formation of our international network of ambassadors, something that we have already started working, but is very dependent on local partners.

We have a solid partnership with Oak Foundation that has enabled us to come this far. The current funding will cover the costs and expansion of the app and our growing network of ambassadors for the next two years.

By reaching the goals established in the current funding strategies, we believe the app will be more sustainable by itself. At the same time, our strategy for the next two years deal with forming a fundraising team, one that reaches out to companies and other funding sources, that will finance the worldwide expansion of the app and its network of ambassadors.

With have a team of 6 full time staff working for Cataki and local collaborators that promote the app in their communities.

Pimp my Wagon, the organization that came up with the Cataki app, has a solid work experience with promoting the standard of life of waste pickers.

The app is the first digital solution for dealing with recyclables in a social and economic efficient manner. Others are bound to come into market, but our being the first puts us ahead. 

Our long partnership with waste pickers also mean we are very well positioned to deliver on the social aspects of dealing with waste. We have a solution that puts the most vulnerable at the core of our solution, not many can boost such clear social responsability.

Currently, Instituto PDR, Neslté, Oak Foundation and Coca-Cola provide the funding for running the app.

Instituto GEA is part of our expansion strategy. 

We also partner with Seabre, an organization focused on helping small companies to better achieve their goals. With Seabre with have a learning plataform targeted at waste pickers, empowering them to earn more.

Cataki is an app that connects waste pickers to people and/or organizations that need to deal with waste, mostly recyclables. A market that, only in Brazil, is estimated to total USD 1,31 billion that could go back to the economy and end up at landfills. 

Usually unable to access other sources of income, waste pickers have a great need to connect to more opportunities. For many of 800,000 to 400,000 waste pickers in Brazil, scavenging dumpsters is their main source of income.

The core value of Cataki is to improve the income of waste pickers by giving them more work opportunities. Users of the platform that need to dispose of their waste contact waste pickers directly and for a pre-arranged fee, they collect and deal with the waste. The app is totally free of charge and its operation and development is currently financed by grants and donations.

Even before the first prototype, the app was built around the needs and vision of waste pickers.

To ensure future sustainability of the operation and development costs, the app will focus more on being an online cooperative, able to bypass intermediaries that compromise profit margins of waste pickers. By reselling recyclables in larger quantities, Cataki will be able to ensure waste pickers get paid their fare share. Also, by working as a large recyclable dealer, Cataki will be able sustain its operations in full. As a short-term goal, our development team is working on building a solution that incorporates a CO2 calculator, by implementing such an improvement, Cataki will be able to tap a new source of income, carbon emissions compensations and also reverse logistics.

We believe Cataki app can be used globally and improve the quality of life of millions of waste pickers worldwide. These men and women are present in all urban realities and are a great example of acting locally to solve a global issue. 

Our main barrier today is having more people on the ground, locally, and securing the funds to support local teams.That is why we are applying to Solve, because we believe our solution is able to have a greater impact with more partners and funding.

Coming from an activist background, our work is mainly focused on impact and visibility, and we were able to excel at that so far.

What we still need help doing is to build a business model that guarantees financial sustainability and growing impact for our solution. Our funding based in grants brought us a long way, but we still have much more to scale.

We have already partnered with a Brazilian organization that empowers small business. Our work together involves technical consultancy and online training for waste pickers.

Through Solve, we believe we can scale our impact in empowering waste pickers, and help training and educational platforms to reach the most socially and economical populations.

Cataki could also partner with organizations that need help in bringing technology to vulnerable populations that are still mostly offline.

Gender in waste picking is a major issue. In Brazil 90% of those working in streets are men, and 87% of workers in cooperatives are women.

Cataki has proven successful with independent workers and is now spreading its focus on working with the women on cooperatives. Expanding the work already done through the "Pimp our Cooperative" program. An initiative that was financed by the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) and helped improve the working conditions in hundreds of waste pickers cooperatives.

Waste pickers are usually the most vulnerable population, with various backgrounds and sometimes forced to homelessness, their livelihood improves a lot with very little resources.

The independent data we were able to gather on the impact of Cataki has shown us a 82,6% increase in the average monthly income of non-motorized waste pickers and a 64,7% increase for those that work with some kind of motorized transport.

These numbers are only the first direct impact, better income and being more tech savvy, means that waste pickers can have access to even more opportunities of income and self improvement. With more money available they can invest either in their operations, or in pursing their personal goals.