Oh My Trash, a tokenized recycling app

RecyGlo is a waste management and data analytics platform that connects its users with recycling facilities and provides off- and online awareness raising activities. 

We are committed to solving the lack of waste management measures in Myanmar and Southeast Asia region, one of the major generators of plastic waste in the world. Only in Myanmar, 12,000 Tons of waste is generated which is either land-filled or dumped in our land or water streams. 

Our solution aims to formalize the informal economy by promoting the use of our Oh My Trash app that connects the base of the pyramid with waste collection points. We are in the process of tokenizing our app allowing for trading the de-carbonization process of recycling to international carbon trading markets. 

We want to create a new stream of revenue for the informal sector and grant the users access to all the benefits of a formalized job.

The problem is that Myanmar and most of Southeast Asian economies have a major share of informal positions, particularly important in the waste management sector. Normally, the base of the pyramid working in this sector has little to no benefits that come with the formalization of the labor force such as access to financial tools (i.e. bank accounts), life and health insurance, social protection services, and greater access to revenue streams. 

In Myanmar, as much as 3.5 m people are working in the waste management sector of which it is estimated that 2 m people are informally employed in the industry. Myanmar waste management sector is largely traditional and there is a widespread lack of knowledge on the consequences of improper waste management for the communities' health and environment. 

There is a large gap in the safety and educational measures for the population working in the waste management sector in Myanmar that fosters the health, social and environmental challenges in the sector. Especially, when the majority of the stakeholders to waste management belong to and operate in the informality.

RecyGlo's mobile app taps into the challenge of formalizing the sector. Through our app, waste pickers, truck drivers, and households can easily trade their recyclable waste online with access to national market prices and a network of collection points. We intend to provide three added benefits to our app:

1. We are introducing blockchain technologies to track the recycled waste and be able to provide new revenue streams to our users through the integration of carbon trading schemes and 'green coins' as rewards. Through these green coins, the users will be able to pay for life and health insurances, financial services and tools, and trade with them for other products.
2. In order to be able to obtain such secondary revenue streams, we would demand from our users to officially register their position. By attracting the informal stakeholders with rewards, we aim to formalize the informal waste management sector in Myanmar.
3. Gain access to online training and educational information through our app in an effort to build up safety and informed practices in the waste management sector. 

So far, more than 500 monthly users are enjoying market-adjusted prices, free e-training material for waste management, and safe recyclable waste trading.

Our serviceable obtainable market is reduced to an estimated 50,000 users in the area of Yangon, yet the total available market is an estimated 2 m people who work in the informality in the waste management sector. They are represented by scavengers / waste pickers, truck drivers, junk shops staff, and unregulated warehouse and facilities staff. 

We have over 3 years of experience working in the recycling sector in Myanmar and we have partnered with recycling facilities and collection points (i.e. junk shops). We have an in-depth local expertise on the informal sector and we are providing a solution that match their needs: economic, service, and educational motivations to enter the formal sector.

We aim to provide a just and useful platform for the above-mentioned stakeholders with fair prices and access to benefits that are currently out of their reach. By entering the formal sector through our app, they will be able to gain many benefits whilst earning a secondary source of revenue.

We applied to the Challenge "Good Jobs and Inclusive Entrepreneurship" as our aim is to integrate the base of the pyramid working in the waste management sector in Myanmar to formality. We want to do so by providing profitable and attractive benefits for the users of our platform. Our technology is perfectly aligned with the Challenge as it aims to improve the sustainability of the already available jobs by integrating them in the formal economy and providing extra benefits to low-skilled, informal sector at most risk during the present economic recession. 

We are implementing our technology in the informal waste management sector and we intend to use innovative solutions such as blockchain technologies to further enhance the benefits obtainable for our users.

There is a competitor in the market called "Recycle Myanmar" yet our competitive advantage towards this competitor is a strong brand recognition in the country, our large stakeholders base, and our aim to integrate the recycling app to international carbon trading markets.

We aim to solve one of the most urgent problems for the informal waste management: the difficulty to obtain value from waste scraps. By providing a second revenue stream, RecyGlo will be innovating with existing technologies and provide the base of the pyramid with basic services and protection.

Our technologies include our B2B Dashboard used for waste collection traceability and analytics, customer management, data visualization and auto-report generation. Our Oh My Trash app is a waste management and trading platform, allowing for national-market prices and location of collection points, plus up-to-date local news and information and tips about waste segregation. Also, we have smart bins which detect and monitor different variables of waste including temperature, humidity or weight of the waste collected and feeds the information to the Dashboard.

Our technologies are powered by the following:

• Backend: Node, Python.
• Frontend: React.
• Database: MongoDB.
• Cloud: AWS.
• Boards: Arduino.

We want to further integrate blockchain technologies in our Oh My Trash app to ensure the traceability of the waste and be able to trade its carbon footprint offset at carbon trading international markets. We already have a partner and we will launch this technological integration this 2020.

Our more than 100 customers, over 500 tonnes of waste recycled a month, and our reach of 900,000 people in Myanmar only are proof that RecyGlo is having a positive impact in the country. 

Our dashboard and app are not a new technology and can be found elsewhere. However, its application to the waste management sector in an emerging market turns our technology in a leapfrogging measure, especially in a country that not until recently was closed to technological implementation. 

Also, the blockchain technologies are being used by, for example, Plastic Bank allowing for companies with a CSR program or a carbon-offset strategy to buy and process plastic from abroad. Other companies, like Carnes Validadas, have also proved that blockchain can provide extra benefits to a market and its users.

We set ourselves to follow the Theory of Change (TOC) as a reference for our work. At RecyGlo, we aspire to continuously improve our practices by reassessing our strategies through reviewing our previous experiences and outcomes. We investigate the results and effects of our actions to effectively redefine efficient practices that use the least of our resources whilst benefiting the largest number of stakeholders. We set ourselves to constantly evaluate our outcomes to reach our long-term vision: a long-lasting impact in Myanmar attained through changing damaging, wasteful, and polluting habits. 

Through our training and awareness campaigns, we aim to shift not only Myanmar’s behaviours but also regional cultures and turn them into campaigners for environmental protection and global leaders in waste management. 

At RecyGlo, we endeavour to contribute to sustainable development in Myanmar. In Yangon alone, we have impacted an estimated 500,000 people and we recycled over 500 tons of waste on a monthly basis.

We are widening our reach to other cities in Myanmar and we want to further involve Myanmar people into bringing a positive change to the country. 

We are serving more than 100 B2B customers, and affecting over 1,000 informal waste pickers, we have partnered with 30 junction shops, and our reach is as large as to affect 900,000 people in Myanmar. 

In a year from now, we aim to increase the B2B customer base by 50% to 150, and reach 5,000 more waste pickers in our Oh My Trash App. Furthermore, we will expand our partnership with junk shops in other cities in Myanmar estimating a number of 80-100 collection points. Finally we estimate that the number of people reached in Myanmar will increase to around 2 m people. 

In five years from now, we want to be serving over 1,000 B2B customers in Southeast Asia, and reach the serviceable informal waste management sector not only in Myanmar (in its entirety) but also in Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia. We want to have an impact on 10 m people in Southeast Asia by 2025.

At RecyGlo, we want to expand our services not only nationally to other cities of Myanmar, but also regionally to Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia. We want to replicate this model throughout the region and solve the problem of lack of proper waste management in Southeast Asia.

We are already scaling our services throughout Myanmar and have registered our business in Malaysia and Indonesia. As stated above, we aim to expand our reach for recycling practices throughout the region and raise awareness on the dangers of improper waste management and its consequences in the environment. 

• Technological barriers: we strive to integrate a blockchain technology to our mobile app. Our internal IT team does not have the capacity yet to build such technology and, therefore, that supposes a technology barrier we have to outsource to a technical partner.
• Market entry barriers in Indonesia have been the largest barriers to entry in the country. Yet, RecyGlo has already entered the market and that barrier has already been overcome. 
• Cultural differences do not diverge majorly, and to edge that we will do knowledge transfer to local staff or, in the case of Indonesia, establishing a partnership with a local waste management startup or corporation. That will serve us to best match and understand the needs of the market while not being hindered by market and technical barriers.
• For legal barriers, we already have hired a law firm with reach to all Southeast Asia, and we enjoy their coverage in their regions. 
• Limitations to our impact come majorly from lack of waste awareness raising which we will tackle through our off- and online training, and public events and waste awareness campaigns.

Our RecyGlo team intends to work with the communities which source of income is the informal waste management sector in Southeast Asia. In order to spread our reach in other countries we will partner with local channels, junk shops, and companies in the waste management sector and use their own customer and user base to implement our solutions.

Our holding company is in Singapore, yet our main operations have been its inception in Yangon, Myanmar.

• 2o Full-time staff;
• 2 Part-time staff;
• 4 Outsourced Truck-drivers.

We are a strong, young, and diverse group of entrepreneurial-minded and environmentally concerned team. Our team is composed of more than twenty employees that share a passion to reach a zero-waste and zero-carbon footprint solution that keep the world environmentally clean.

Our CEO and co-founder, Ms Shwe Yamin Oo, and our co-founder Mr Okka Phyo Maung inspired us to strive for a cleaner, healthier, and greener Myanmar and use our experience to grow as a regional referent. Ms Shwe Yamin Oo (Myanmar), Co-founder and CEO at RecyGlo, enriches the organization with a decade-long entrepreneurial journey to make sure that the organization can keep on strong in any situation under her leadership. She founded various projects such as a community development tech school, retail-chains, an accounting app, and RecyGlo. Ms Yamin is committed to providing environmentally friendly recycling solutions to Yangon, Myanmar, and the surrounding countries in South East Asia (SEA). Additionally, Mr Okka Phyo Maung has a background as a consultant in one of the big four consultancies and project management in the hydropower sector. He has studied in the United States and is a global worker – he has worked in Norway, Indonesia, Belgium, Korea, and Myanmar. He is a goal-oriented CFO and CMO that spearheads the fundraising and operations of RecyGlo. Furthermore, he has attended multiple events throughout SEA as the voice of RecyGlo.

We have as partners various waste management facilities in Myanmar and various management facilities in Europe and SouthEast Asia (for e-waste). We have partnered with 5 recycling facilities in Yangon Myanmar, 30 collection points in the Yangon area, we have also partnered with Bokashi Myanmar for the processing of organic waste management, and we have several partnerships (4) with local truck-driver agencies.

We also are members of the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry, the British Chamber of Commerce, and the French Chamber of Commerce and Industry. 

Besides, we have several partnerships agreed abroad, such as our membership to Accelerating Asia as member of their 2nd cohort, and a partnership with the Regional Government of Malaysia and a telecommunications company with which we have already started a pilot project.

At RecyGlo, we do not want to miss the chance to continue widening and deepening recycling services in Myanmar and we intend to spread our know-how and experience in the sector by providing our B2B and B2B2C services to individuals and businesses. We provide reporting, auditing, certification, and data visualization services for international NGOs, Embassies, MNEs and SMEs in Myanmar. We connect the private sector and individual households with recycling facilities, being the only waste management and data analytics platform in the country. 

A fundamental technology to our business is the Oh My Trash app. It allows individuals, especially rural and urban residents, to sell their waste to junk shops who can sell it to waste management facilities. RecyGlo benefits from a small commission in the transaction between junk shops and waste management facilities and provides a new service to individuals who, otherwise, would not have access to recycling services. Through our app, they get micro health insurance and enter the formal sector. To promote recycling practices, we want to further develop various technologies to tackle this issue. Oh My Trash App is our app for waste management and trading, price listing for recyclable wastes, nearby junk shops in integrated maps, up-to-date news about the environment, and information and tips about waste segregation. Thanks to our app, all stakeholders can recycle and waste pickers or households living in the informal sector get access to a formal source of revenue. 

Our company is self-sufficient and profit making. Our main service is on facilitating recycling services to B2B customers and providing advisory and consulting services for large scale projects in communities and cities around Myanmar. 

Our Oh My Trash app currently is generating income for RecyGlo. However, the capital contribution of the app is currently not significant. Oh My Trash is a tool for the base of the pyramid and empowers the informal sector in the waste management industry. By integrating blockchain technologies we want to increase the usefulness of the app by providing extra revenues to the users and welcoming this sector to formality. 

Furthermore, we have been funded by several accelerators and incubators throughout the three years the startup has been operative. We also have had private investment that further aided us to extend our operations in Myanmar, Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia.