Inspiration
Waste Marche is concerned with the industrial waste sector. Egypt produces more than 24 million tons of waste annually. 6 million of them are in the industrial sector and according to different reports, only 65 % of them is properly handled and 35 % are being DUMPED. The problem in the industrial market which inspired us can be summarized as below.
- Some wastes are being dumped as no disposal methods are known
- Some wastes are being dumped because disposal methods are expensive
- Manufacturers dispose some waste which can be sold
- Scrap is sold below the market prices
- Waste management service providers can not find the customers. This problem in the market inspired the team to initiate waste marche to try to take part in helping to save the environment and adding positive impact to the economy
What it does
Manufacturing companies can post their waste items on the website and choose whether they want to sell and dispose. Accordingly they get offers on their accounts after an online bidding process between the waste buyers and recycling companies registered on the website.
How I built it
One of the team members is ex-Lafarge alternative fuel and raw materials division where they used to use waste that is being dumped as an alternative for natural gas . Another team member had an experience as a middle man for some industrial waste items and the third has an industrial experience and suffered from lack of data concerning waste players. The 3 members gathered and came with the idea of waste marche after they started another e-commerce project which was not successful due to financing issues.
Challenges I ran into
The main 3 challenges we faced are the technological illetracy of the informal sector and the resistance of some customer to change their current way of handling their waste. The last challenge is the lack of financial capital.
Accomplishments that I'm proud of
1- Being honored by the president of Egypt and being hosted in a couple of TV shows 2- Being incubated in TIEC 3- Being incubated in Nile University 4- Having the first place in TIEC accelerator program 5- Having the first place in Cairo ICT 2018 6- Being chosen to participate in the UK embassy competition among 10 teams out of 120 and getting very good review from the ambassador 7- Being a qualified service provider for several mutinationals including Procter and Gamble, Nestle, Titan Cement, General Electric, Pirelli and others 8- Capacity building for the local garbage collectors in Mansheyet Nasser 9- Raising the awareness for the industrial sector about the waste market price 10 - Helping to save the environment and this is through :
- Reducing the amount of dumped waste through finding other solutions than landfill and incineration to manufacturing companies
- Reducing the CO2 emitted from transportation by finding waste buyers close to the locations of the waste generating companies
What I learned
- Inclusion of informal garbage collectors is a key to success for any project related to waste recycling
- Several opportunities have been identified that can have environmental, social and economical positive impacts if implemented
- The waste market in Egypt lacks a lot of technical and commercial info related to waste management
- Good team members are key to success
What's next for Waste Marche
Waste Marche is working on new features which will be available by 2020 such as :
- Expanding R&D section to provide support for the specialty waste items
- the waste market prices : which shows the prices for the different waste items which will be updated on monthly basis
- A technical database ( it will be called wastepedia) : which shows technical info related to different waste items
- A waste map : This map will show the locations of the different waste items ( whether locations of generation or of consumption )
- Market status : This will show each waste item whether it is long in the market ( available in excess quantities and can be exported ) or short ( available in insufficient amounts and needs to be imported )
In addition to the features development, by end of 2020 waste marche will be expanding to the middle east region starting with the Saudi market.
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