WasteVerify

WasteVerify tracks 'ghost' households by linking waste services to Digital ID. Our multi-channel platform (App/USSD/Agent) stops revenue leaks and ensures verified collection.

Comment

Inspiration

Rwanda is globally acclaimed for its cleanliness and green initiatives. Yet, when we scratched the surface, we found a disconnect. While payments are becoming digital (Mobile Money), the tracking of waste collection remains analog.

Our inspiration came from a candid conversation with a local waste management operator in Kigali. He showed us the reality: stack of paper notebooks, Excel sheets that don't match bank statements, and a massive list of "Ghost Households", families that generate waste but don't exist in the system.

We realized that waste management isn't just a logistics problem; it’s an identity problem. If you can't verify who lives where, you can't manage the city. We asked ourselves: How can we use Digital ID to turn these "ghosts" into active, paying participants in the green economy?

What it does

WasteVerify is a multi-channel platform that links a resident's Digital ID (National ID) to their physical location and payment history. It serves as a "Proof of Service" protocol.

  1. For the Resident: It provides a simple way to pay for and verify waste collection via USSD (for feature phones), App, or local Agents.
  2. For the Operator: It replaces "staff memory" with a real-time map of paid vs. unpaid households, optimizing routes and revenue.
  3. For the Government: It provides immutable data on sanitation coverage, ensuring subsidies reach the vulnerable.

How we designed it (The Architecture)

We approached this solution with an "Offline-First" and "Inclusion-First" mindset. We knew an app alone would fail because 40% of our target demographic doesn't own smartphones (according to TechCabal).

The Stack we designed:

  • Identity Layer: We will build on MOSIP principles, using the ID Authentication module to verify the "Head of Household" without storing sensitive biometric data locally.
  • Connectivity Layer: A hybrid USSD/SMS Gateway will ensure that a grandmother with a Nokia phone has the same access rights as a tech-savvy student with a smartphone.
  • Data Layer: A centralized ledger that reconciles Mobile Money API hooks (MTN/Airtel) against the Waste Subscription ID.

Challenges that will be addressed

The biggest challenge is The Digital Divide. As Rwandan residents, we often face challenges when dealing with waste management challenges, which include limited payment options and inconsistent delivery of service. We initially thought of building an App-only solution, but research interviews with waste management workers and residents revealed that the people most likely to fall through the cracks (the elderly, the poor) cannot use apps.

  • The Pivot: We redesigned the system to be Channel Agnostic. We plan to introduce the "Agent Portal" concept, empowering local leaders (Umudugudu) to act as the digital bridge for offline households.

What we learned

  • Trust is Physical: In the waste sector, digital payments are not enough. People want physical proof that their trash was collected. This led us to design the "Digital Handshake", a feature where the collector scans a household's QR code (or enters a USSD shortcode) to digitally "sign" for the waste.

  • Data is Lost in Translation: We identified a massive 'Reconciliation Gap.' While 14.7% of households in Kigali evade payments entirely (ResearchGate, 2022), a further significant percentage is lost to administrative errors. In parallel utility sectors like water, billing inefficiencies account for ~42% of revenue loss (WASAC Pilot Study, 2025).

Our interviews confirmed the specific mechanism for this in waste: Mobile Money payments arrive as 'Phone Numbers,' but customer registries are listed by 'House Numbers.' Without a Digital ID to bridge this gap, operators cannot verify who has paid, leading to an estimated 30% total revenue leakage. WasteVerify solves this by permanently linking the two via the Digital ID.

What's next for WasteVerify

We are currently in the prototype design phase. Our roadmap includes:

  1. Pilot: A 3-month test run in a single Umudugudu (Village) to validate the USSD user flow.
  2. Integration: Partnering with a major waste cooperative to feed real historical data into our model.
  3. Scale: Pitching to the City of Kigali as a bolt-on solution for the existing Smart City initiative.

We believe that cleaning up the data is the first step to cleaning up the world.

Built With

Share this project:

Updates