Powerstove Energy

Refuse disposal is one of the major environmental problems that developing countries are faced with. Health hazard, traffic congestion, unsightliness, unpleasantness and blockage of drainages are some of the problems caused by the lack of efficient waste management practice in Nigeria.

As part of Powerstove Energy CSR Project, the company is working with communities to establish “e-waste banks” that serve as community-based recovery facilities. E-waste banks collect discarded electronic materials such as mobile phones, chargers, laptops, keyboards, batteries, solar PVs and so forth from clients and resell them to the appropriate buyers. The revenue is added to the client’s “e-waste bank savings account,” thus creating an economic incentive for individuals and households to collect and recycle e-waste. In addition to reselling materials, many e-waste banks also operate as recycling business units, in which they convert recyclables and sell them as usable products (e.g. conversion of plastic packaging waste into handicrafts).

Solid waste management is the most pressing environmental challenge faced by urban and rural areas of Nigeria. Nigeria, with population exceeding 200 million, is one of the largest producers of solid waste in Africa. Insufficient provision of waste collection centres is just a part of what appears like a growing culture of poor e-waste handling in the busy Electronic market. As far as operators in the market are concerned, every unoccupied space – walkway, street and even drainage – is a potential dumpsite for electronic waste.  Indeed, everywhere you turn; there are food spills, filthy plastic and corroded metals staring at people in the face.

Unfortunately, not many people bother to separate metal components from plastic items, which form the bulk of waste generated from other garbage before trashing them. Nigeria generates more than 35 million tons of solid waste annually, out of which only 20-30% is collected. Most of the wastes are generated by households and in some cases, by local industries, artisans and traders which litter the immediate surroundings. Improper collection and disposal of municipal wastes is leading to an environmental catastrophe as Nigeria currently lack adequate budgetary provisions for the implementation of integrated waste management programmes.

The Nigerian capital, Abuja and its satellite towns and villages are under a plague of garbage. The Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) which is charged with waste management in Abuja says its mandate is to concentrate on the capital city not the six area councils.

But even in parts of the municipality where AEPB used to be efficient, illegal garbage dumps are now ubiquitous by the roadsides and all manners of solid waste end up there. The garbage is not only fouling the air, but it is also infiltrating and polluting water and contributing to disease outbreaks in the territory.

We are working with these populations to setup a trash bank. The concept is very simple. Residents who are interested in the trash bank program collect e-wastes, discarded electrical or electronic devices destined for landfills to the bank where the trash is weighed and then monetary value is assigned to the person. Powerstove uses part of the e-waste to produce portable and affordable rechargeable reading lanterns and touch lights for schools/students, cottage hospitals and off-grid homes. Other components are repurposed into Powerstove IoT circuit allowing individuals to grow a “savings” account and keep money for future references by recycling e-wastes.

The Powerstove Energy Project is working with communities to establish “e-waste banks” that serve as community-based recovery facilities. E-waste banks collect discarded electronic materials such as mobile phones, chargers, laptops, keyboards, batteries, solar PVs and so forth from clients and resell them to the appropriate buyers. Then, the revenue is added to the client’s “e-waste bank savings account,” thus creating an economic incentive for individuals and households to collect and recycle e-waste. In addition to reselling materials, many e-waste banks will also operate as recycling business units, in which they convert recyclables and sell them as usable products (e.g. conversion of plastic packaging waste into handicrafts).

This effort will not only reduce the waste stream that is dumped into garbage disposal sites, but has also eliminated illegal dumping of e-wastes and created additional job opportunities. In an effort to create generational change and alter mindsets, Powerstove targets young people and asks parents to register their e-waste banks accounts in their child’s name. The Company is also working with schools to increase youth participation by integrating e-waste management practices among students at an early age. In 2020, Powerstove Energy will focus on standardizing the requirements and procedures for operating e-waste banks and is creating a mobile platform called Trak 2.0 to make it easier to collect, collate and recycle e-wastes. Powerstove Energy hopes within the next 12 months to ensure the quality of this model, create an opportunity for collective marketing, serve as a training module that covers important topics such as exploring the business behind composting, as well as setting standards around e-waste collection and recycling.

The Trak 2.0 platform will allow Powerstove Energy to remotely determine the battery life of her solar products and when it is nearing end-of-life or faulty. Furthermore, as user base grows, we have plans to incorporate e-waste management online mobile application which seeks to help our product users keep their e-wastes, know the value of the generated e-wastes at every point in time, schedule and request a pick up and get e-wastes picked at the comfort of their homes and finally get paid for the e-wastes via the Mobile platform. The Trak 2.0 will also integrate SMS notifications and messaging in other to reach out to users of feature phones (no smart phones) and help our users monetize their e-wastes as well generating revenue through satisfying the demand of recycling partnering company.

Powerstove Energy is building Trak 2.0 app is designed to manage e-waste across Nigeria. Powerstove Energy seeks to innovatively address the e-waste pollution in Nigeria through a franchise model that integrates Powerstove Rangers (Waste pickers) into the digital platform that enables homes, institutions and communities start and request recycling services with click of the finger. The Trak 2.0 seeks to help our product users keep their e-wastes, know the value of the generated e-wastes at every point in time, schedule and request a pick up and get e-wastes picked at the comfort of their homes and finally get paid for the e-wastes via the Mobile platform. The Trak 2.0 will also integrate SMS notifications and messaging in other to reach out to users of feature phones (no smart phones) and help our users monetize their e-wastes as well generating revenue through satisfying the demand of recycling partnering company.

Powerstove Energy will train and incentivize local waste pickers to become first responders to e-wastes once Trak 2.0 app users trigger call for collection of e-wastes, at their homes or offices. Also, same local waste pickers shall be trained to collect back recyclable assets from residents to a single collection e-waste bank where our recycling partners will purchase them and repurpose the Lithium ion batteries and other components into portable and affordable rechargeable reading lanterns and touch lights for schools/students, cottage hospitals and off-grid homes. 

Powerstove is piloting its waste management web and mobile application aiming to help users’ monetise their waste and satisfy the demand of recycling companies. Powerstove Trak 2.0 app shows users how to separate their waste, informs them of the real-time value of the waste, and allows them to request and schedule a pick-up. They can then also get paid for the waste via the mobile platform.

Powerstove focuses on e-wastes, plastic, polythene and metal waste materials, integrating SMS notifications and messaging in order to reach out to users of feature phones for wider coverage. Through waste banks, Powerstove collects and recycles, reuse or repurpose e-waste, single use plastic, ensuring that it gets processed sustainably using circular economy principles.

Waste banks and Trak 2.0 applications are being used to overcome garbage problems. Realising that there was a lack of knowledge in the Nigerian community about what could and couldn't be recycled, Powerstove develop the Trak 2.0 app. The app tells its user how to simply and efficiently recycle whichever item they wish to dispose, specific to the user's relative local government’s guidelines. The application also features waste management information for each municipality, including the location of recycling centres, waste banks, direct updates from the council, restrictions for the contents of recycling and land- fill street bins, and reminders about when to put them out.

Powerstove believes that those most affected by unsustainable waste disposal and its associated pollution must play a leadership role in developing and advancing solutions. The inclusive zero waste approaches that Powerstove promotes are rooted in a belief that the democratization of power and resources is essential for the preservation of our planet and for the creation of just and sustainable local economies.

These principles embedded in all our efforts is modeled in two-fold: cutting waste through reuse and recycling, and allowing local people to save money and gain credit from waste that would normally just be disposed of. Our solution is based on successes recorded in Indonesia where waste banks are set up in neighbourhoods, typically for 1000 residents, and are usually run by poorer people who wish to increase their income. Bank customers, often women, bring recyclable items such as plastic bottles and papers to the banks where it is treated like a deposit. Rubbish is weighed and given a monetary value. The waste banks sell the deposited material to mobile agents for reuse or recycling, or to local governments who also recycle.

The waste deposits are transformed into money that can be withdrawn when needed after a contribution of about 15% is deducted for the bank’s operating costs. Customers can open an account, make deposits, and withdraw funds - working almost like a regular bank. Though most of the account holders are savers, customers can also borrow money, paying it back in rubbish, thus creating a credit system.

Powerstove is being piloted in nine communities in Abuja and will be refined based upon user feedback. During the pilot period, technicians and developers are continuing to add functions and work with the last mile users to connect our users’ feedback to our data reporting system. By the end of 2019, Powerstove will be expanded to 21 communities, serve the entire spectrum of recycling program, set up logistic for recovery and responds to collection request digitally. This will improve the quality of livelihood provided to 12,000 household residents. We will refine our implementation strategy based upon our experience with our initial roll-out.

Expansion of Powerstove throughout Nigeria will begin mid-2020. This will allow us to improve the quality of livelihood to 480,000 households in 2020. We aim to increase the quality of livelihood provided to poor and low-income households by at least 50% one year after Powerstove implementation, leading to significant improvements in maternal and child morbidity and mortality. During this time, The Powerstove Project will work closely with the Ministry of Environment to prepare for the expansion of Powerstove throughout the States, thus improving the quality of care to over 30 million households by 2023.

The Abuja Municipal Area Council Waste Management Office recognizes the importance of a consumer initiated waste disposal system designed by and for local residents that also satisfies Agency’s needs, and has requested expansion of Powerstove to residential communities outside the Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory by mid-2020. Over the next nine months, our team will expand Powerstove from nine communities to all twenty-one communities in Abuja, link the database of all waste banks, and refine our implementation strategy based upon our experience with the initial 21 communities. We will deploy fifteen implementation teams and work with local partners to expand Powerstove throughout Nigeria by mid-2020.

Over the next five years, Powerstove will expand to support Recycling Services: Recovers, Collects and Recycles various forms of e-wastes, plastic waste, paper and beverage cans into new products through the Trak 2.0 app throughout West Africa and beyond. Because our software is designed to support national protocols based upon international GDPR guidelines, it can be shared with minimal adjustment to other national programs. We will add modules to improve the internal and external audit of its collection and recycling operations and measuring environmental impact and CO2 offset using the UNFCC standards. Ensure plastic wastes are recycled into new products for the local and international market and creates an incentive approach for recovery of various e-waste, plastics and integrating women waste pickers as stakeholders serving millions of people across Africa.

The waste banks suffered public acceptance because the program was altering public perception and behavior in regard to waste management. People initially thought that bringing their wastes to waste banks makes them waste pickers. A word they find derogatory, as waste pickers are perceived as the lowest in the hierarchy of urban informal occupations. The majority of waste bank customers are housewives. With our waste bank in communities, women no longer consider waste as a problem but as a money making tools. People get many benefit from the presence of this waste bank, in addition to make them earn additional income, they are more excited about cleaning up the environment so that it has the impact on the environment. Currently, waste is no longer something that is ugly and harmful but has become something valuable that has economic value for local residents. Residents hope that our waste bank model will continue to develop and expect a better service and hope that the prices of waste continue to rise or follow market prices so that the spirit of the local people to continue to collect trash and maintain environmental hygiene can be maintained or even increased rapidly. Socialization of our waste bank is also expected to continue to encourage more citizens to participate in collecting garbage and earn income from the waste bank. Additional income is very important for the housewives since income are not enough to meet their daily needs. Over time, people’s awareness to protect the environment has increased. 

Powerstove Energy’s e-waste banks suffered public acceptance because the program was altering public perception and behavior in regard to waste management. This, along with the absence of a physical and legal infrastructure, presents the most significant challenges. Also, political and societal risks was a challenge too. 

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Our team is comprised of a diverse and complementary group of experts in manufacturing, waste recycling, public health, Desktop and Mobile-based applications written in C#, VB.Net and JavaScript and BASIC-for-Java, and human-centered design that provides expert viewpoints from a wide array of fields. Our Nigerian leadership has expertise in rural e-waste management and national cottage business requirements, while our Executive Director’s extensive experience as an end-user of electronic waste management in India allows our team to draw upon the successes and failures of India-based digital waste bank records. The Powerstove Project works closely with the Nigeria Ministry of Environment to guide our national scale strategy.

Powerstove Energy currently has two groups of partners for e-waste management and recycling:

• Passionate Care Foundation on training volunteers, technology development and a broader research partnership
• The Ministry of Environment in Niger State has adopted and replicated the model and are piloting the solution and using their capital and resources to support the deployments

Powerstove Energy initiative was set up by local people to combat this e-waste problem, a co-op designed for two purposes. The solution is two-fold: cutting waste through reuse and recycling, and allowing local people to save money and gain credit from waste that would normally just be disposed of.

Waste banks are set up in neighbourhoods, typically for about 1000 residents, and are usually run by poorer people who wish to increase their income. Bank customers, often women, bring recyclable items such as plastic bottles and papers to the banks where it is treated like a deposit. Rubbish is weighed and given a monetary value. The waste banks sell the deposited material to mobile agents for reuse or recycling, or to local governments who also recycle.

The waste deposits are transformed into money that can be withdrawn when needed after a contribution of about 15% is deducted for the bank’s operating costs. Customers can open an account, make deposits, and withdraw funds - working almost like a regular bank. Though most of the account holders are savers, customers can also borrow money, paying it back in rubbish, thus creating a credit system.

Powerstove Energy team will be well positioned to generate revenue to sustain our work through 15% commissions of sales of wastes, revenues from all the wastes sold. The urban mining is getting larger and more organized and Powerstove is taking first-movers advantage to setup waste banks that consolidate e-waste locally with environmentally friendly closed loop e-waste recycling processes. The wastes are sorted to types: plastics, e-wastes, and cartons. Plastics and cartons are shredded, bagged and sold as secondary raw materials to manufacturing companies. Electronic waste - including mobile phones, TVs and computers, which contains gold and other precious metals and rare earth minerals are sold locally to goldsmith and establish e-waste recycling companies in Lagos who buys at a premium when neatly sorted. The advantage of our waste banks is that when they receive these wastes from residents, they are already trained on how to carefully sort them accordingly, thereby enhancing the market value. Our current challenge is opening more waste banks to meet the demands of our customers. Finally, e-waste recycling is a profitable business. But, it depends on two factors. 1. Quantity of e-waste you are getting to recycle. 2. The cost at which you are getting the e-waste. Since we are getting enough quantity at low price it becomes a profitable business. From my experience the main problem with the market demand is getting enough e-waste for recycling (only 30–40% of our capacity is utilized) so we need to increase sensitization.

To reach the goals mentioned above, Powerstove Energy seeks partnerships to:

• Mentor and advise product development and strategic planning
• Support marketing and communications that clearly distribute data
• Build connections to investors and grantors to progress their fundraising strategy

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Powerstove Energy has a long-term plan to also work with the International Finance Corporation (IFC – World Bank) to create an applied research platform that enables the creation of critical standards and best practices in e-waste recycling. Powerstove expect some of the extensive output that will come out of this partnership can be insights into technology standards for the recycling industry, codes of conduct to work with informal collectors, auditing check-lists for dismantlers and recyclers and so forth. Powerstove Energy hopes that IFC will see this information as being a tool for others to take her idea and implement globally, where the e-waste challenge is also present.

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Powerstove will utilize the Prize money to invest in mass awareness building of key stakeholders, such as schools and bulk consumers. Powerstove sees these two stakeholders in particular as key because young people are fast becoming the biggest users of electronic products while bulk consumers currently stand as the biggest generators of e-waste. Powerstove works with these communities by partnering with a network of 10 NGOs and other outreach partners who already have built trust and stake in these communities. With each stakeholder, Powerstove has a curated journey that aims at sensitizing and driving positive behavior change and action among young people. For example, through Powerstove school curriculum program that focuses on building critical thinking skills, empathy and teamwork, Powerstove uses e-waste as a tool to take students through a reflection and community action journey. These students play a huge role in influencing their immediate households and communities to drop off e-waste at e-waste banks built infrastructure (drop off boxes) available all over their communities, which gets taken to registered recyclers. Powerstove is able to partner with a large number of NGO’s who have access to these schools because they are often looking to have capacity building and innovative pedagogy to deliver various life skills as well as other interventions which can be practiced/built through a focus on e-waste. Similarly, with bulk consumers, Powerstove works with employees to take them through awareness programs so they can become champions of responsible actions on behalf of the companies they work for.

Powerstove Energy increases energy access for women and youth in underserved communities. Our Women Waste Ambassadors lead our national training programs, promoting gender equity, and ensure that African women are change-makers as well as our beneficiaries. Our curriculum and videos feature women solar installers and e-waste pickers. We update all of our curriculum and videos; they now showcase importance of improved e-waste management and also African women installers. We also conduct solar education in under-resourced communities, training youth in African informal settlements and refugee camps to become installers as well.

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