Wecyclers - Recycling Exchange (WREX)

Wecyclers- Recycling exchange (WREX) addresses the pressing social challenge of waste management and unemployment by offering sustainable and convenient recycling services to low/middle income households and businesses while alleviating poverty, creating grass-roots jobs and economic partnerships. WREX is run by placing recycling kiosks in densely populated areas providing members of the local community the opportunity to drop off recyclable materials and get cash allocated accordingly. The kiosks serves as a collection point for recyclables and are emptied daily using mini-compactor trucks. The WREX has the potential to change the lives of millions of people if scaled globally as it essentially enables what we term “waste”, serves as currency in exchange for cash while protecting the environment and human health, providing jobs and improving the social living standards people.

The World Bank estimates that world cities generate about 1.3 billion tons of solid waste per year with an increase to 2.2 billion tons by 2025. In Nigeria, more than 32 million tons of waste is generated annually while Lagos, the second fastest growing city in Africa with a population of over 20million people has hit 13,000 tons daily, making municipal waste management a big challenge. Lagos currently generates more than 730,000 tons of plastic waste per year, with only about 5% of that waste being recycled yearly. Poverty and Unemployment are also core social issues that WREX addresses. With a 16% increase in unemployment yearly, the level of poverty also increases. In 2018, Brookings report revealed that Nigeria is now the nation with the highest number of people living in extreme poverty with an estimated population of 86,977,400 living in abject poverty. Poverty results in an increase in crime, hunger, ill-health, lack of quality education and many others. WREX seeks to address the pressing social challenge of ineffective waste management, plastic and environmental pollution, as well as poverty reduction by enabling densely populated households to capture value from their waste while providing convenient household recycling services, creating grass-root jobs.

WREX serves communities who are mainly made up of indigent people at the bottom of the income pyramid, living on less than $2 a day. They have little to no access to basic amenities such as adequate waste collection service, good road network, clean water and even health care, This solution is designed to create incentives for households in these informal settlements to recycle the plastic bottles and other waste they produce and/or find in their environment.  This prevents recyclables from piling up in landfills, littering streets, clogging drainage channels, causing illnesses like malaria and making their way into the lagoon or open ocean.

Removing and recycling these wastes not only allows us mitigate environmental and health hazards, but it creates opportunities for education about environmental issues—improved standard of living, and crucially, jobs for community members at every stage of the process.

The central innovation of WREX is the utilisation of recycling kiosks placed in densely populated neighbourhoods within the state to provide an avenue for members of the local community to drop off their recyclables and in turn get rewarded with cash. We also have collectors who visit households that are situated away from the centre to collect recyclables directly from them. They would also receive rewards based on the weight of their recyclables. Collection is carried out using motorised tricycles that are designed to adapt to the bad roads and traffic conditions of the Lagos terrain. Subscribers situated near the kiosks also walk-in and deposit their recyclables.

WREX makes an entrance into communities by hosting awareness campaigns and registering a number of residents. Each newly registered subscriber would receive a customer log and a flyer listing the goods for which they could trade their recyclables and the items WREX receives for recycling. Upon collection of the household waste, the operators weigh each household’s materials and service subscriber rewards are entered into collection logs as well as the agents’ log. Each type of recyclable—paper, plastic, and aluminium—is assigned a different value. In a day or two the subscriber receives a confirmation text message on their mobile phone through our SMS enabled platform. The Wecyclers software credits rewards based on a schedule of weight and the value of each type of material, and the text message informs the subscriber of money they have earned for that week, as well as the total amount of cash they have accrued. Each quarter there is a two-week period during which the Wecyclers agent visits all of the clients on their route to confirm their cash total and take orders if gifts are preferred. We also sends a mass text message to all its customers informing them of the redemption period.

Wecyclers has three processing facilities, each of which uses the same sorting process. Once recyclables are off-loaded, plastic bottles are placed in a pile and workers sort them by colour and type, removing the cap and label and placing it into an appropriate bag. Once the bags are full they are taken to the baling machine, which compact them into bales of a standard size that can be sold to larger processors. The same applies to other recyclable materials such as aluminium, paper and cardboard.

The use of simple technology comprising of both low and high tech solutions makes WREX an innovative and unique solution. We utilise an incentive based model to tackle the major challenge of improper waste collection and disposal. Our SMS enabled platform and proprietary software manages interaction and gathers data on subscriber recycling habits, demographics, and trends. We give subscribers an extra reason to separate the waste generated or collected for recycling. The opportunity to receive cash or household gift items opened up an avenue for people to create value from the waste lying around. We have created a value chain that did not exist, and did this by incorporating technology that could be used by any average citizen.

The most important piece of technology we use, is cloud computing and this is the core of WREX business. Our business process relies on short messaging, to notify our customers about their contributions to recycling on each submission. The data collected is stored in the cloud to facilitate easy access and longevity.  We have developed a mobile app for collectors and riders which serve as on the spot data entry service. Upon collection or drop off of recyclables, subscribers receive a confirmation text message on their mobile phone through our SMS enabled platform. The Wecyclers software credits rewards based on a schedule of weight and the value of each type of material, and the text message informs the subscriber of the amount of money they have earned for that week, as well as the total amount they have accrued. We also send mass text messages to all customers informing them of the redemption period. 

The Wecyclers Recycling Exchange is the solution to the waste management, unemployment, poverty and other social issues faced by many developing countries. The opportunity to receive cash or household gift items from waste, opened up an avenue for people to create value from the waste lying around. Since its inception, Wecyclers services over 18,000 households in counties around Lagos, diverted over 4,000 Metric tonnes of recyclable materials into productive use and given out over $90,000 worth of cash and household items. Recently, Wecyclers has empowered 7 Franchisees running independently using its low cost collection system in full capacity across Lagos. This proves that this solution not only rids the environment of recyclable waste but also provides jobs and improving the standard of living of subscribers.

We are currently serving 18,000 subscribers and would increase to 50,000 in a year. In five years, we will be serving 500,000 households across the state and country.

By 2024, our goal is to have expanded our recyclable waste collection service by setting up centres all over the state and country. We have an expansion target of 15,000 tons of plastics per annum and the development of a Post-Consumer Recycling Facility and upgrading the plant to a PET ‘bottle to bottle’ facility. Our projections suggest we will be serving 500,000 households through hubs across the nation, creating over 50,000 jobs. At this size, we will have recycled over 60,000 tons of plastics and other materials and given out more than $3.5 million in incentive rewards. Wecyclers long-term goal is to eventually reach a million homes and create well over 100,000 jobs

Wecyclers has focused on lowering costs and increasing sales to stay profitable and sustainable, however, we lack the funds to expand our volumes to the critical levels that will allow us to attain operational profitability and long term sustainability. We rely on grants to help fund our expansions and cover losses. The limitation in funding also prevents us from recruiting the best talent to help grow the company. With increased funding, we will be able to expand and recruit the best available talent. Another critical issue we face is legislative support. Due to the fact that the recently mandated extended producer responsibility (EPR) is still yet to be enforced in the country, there is still a huge gap to be filled between producers and recycling organizations. We believe that with appropriate legal support, the company can become an early adopter in pushing these organizations into accepting their responsibilities and bridging the gap between producers and recycling plants alike.

We are tackling funding for expansion primarily by working to reduce overhead costs while increasing sales and productivity. Strategic partnerships and with leading international organizations to invest and help improve our technical capabilities and efficiencies are also means by which we are tackling challenges faced from expansion. We are working in close contact with the government to also encourage and drive the enforcement of already set down waste management and environmental protection rules such as the EPR.  

We currently have 120 full time staff and 30 part time staff

Bilikiss Adebiyi-Abiola, Founder, is passionate about positively impacting people’s lives in Nigeria using waste. During her time at MIT Sloan, Bilikiss gained a significant amount of experience in waste re-purposing. She has degrees from MIT Sloan School of Management (MBA), MS, Computer Science, Vanderbilt University, BS, Fisk University.

Olawale Adebiyi, CEO, has 10 years industrial experience at a US Fortune 200 Company. Olawale is experienced in construction and commissioning of multimillion dollar production facilities. He is a highly motivated individual with a proven ability to lead teams and generate results. He has degrees from Kelley School of Business, MS, Chemical Engineering, Florida Tech, BS, Chemical Engineering, Florida Tech. 

We have highly qualified and experiences front line management team consisting of Environmental Managers, Engineers and Accountants. 

▪ Partnership with Unilever to expand collection and processing of PET, HDPE and multilayer flexible packaging and expand kiosk collection model across the state.

▪ Partnership with Serioplast to expand plastic collection across the state and upgrade to a bottle to bottle processing facility. 

WREX business model centers on the recovery of recyclable waste from the environment, processing and sale to larger recycling firms as raw materials for production. Revenue is earned from three primary sources. They are "Pay to collect”, “Sale of recycled products”, and “Corporate recycling services”. In the Pay to collect model, wecyclers serves corporate customers looking to comply with ERP’s take-back and recycle policy. Wecyclers sells its recycled products to customers in various industries as raw materials and also serves corporate customers committed to recycling waste by providing collection services. Revenue from these sources is then utilized to incentivize our subscribers for recycling based on the quantity of recyclables collected from each individual. 

Consistent growth in revenue will be attributed to sustained donations and grants, increased sale of recyclable materials, more corporate recycling service rendered and raising capital investment. A growth in revenue is the aftermath effect of increased collection numbers, adding more value to the waste collected and selling at a premium rate. This is categorized as the Market Intermediary Model.

We are applying to Solve to help us meet our fundraising goals and achieve our vision for growth. If the WREX solution is selected and receives the funding amount, the company will ensure that the funding is efficiently utilised and maximised to ensure the expansion of our organisation as well as its impacts in society. We will increase our collection efforts and enhance the organisation’s sustainability by improving the company’s operations to deliver quality and efficient collection services. Selecting our solution will help us achieve our goals of we serving 500,000 households through hubs across the nation, creating over 50,000 jobs, recycling 60,000 tons of plastics and other materials and giving out more than $3.5 million in incentive rewards. 

We are interested in Equity and Brand Partnership with Coca-Cola. A partnership as such will help drive our collection goals through investments.

We will utilize this grant to provide recycling education to the general populace through traditional and social media. We will also promote cleaner healthier environments through monthly clean-ups, "recycling for kids" campaign and awareness activities to sensitize people on the importance of recycling. Campaigns such as this will be carried out regularly to boost the recycling culture thereby promoting circular economy.

Over 60% of our staff are female. We have built a new cadre of people working in the recycling industry with an average wage increase of over 30% above minimum wage. Winning this prize will help us employ even more women and youths as full time staff, creating a sustainable livelihood for them. 80% of our beneficiaries are also women who are head of households. Winning this prize will mean expanding collection to more communities with most of our subscribers being women. They will begin to earn a sizable income from collecting and giving WREX waste for recycling.