Bounties attract serious brainpower to the challenge.
You separate waste and throw it into the waste container for somebody else to process it, sell it or use it. How about using YOUR personal waste as an additional source of income? This service can make it possible.
The concept
Some people buy or redecorate old unused real estate and earn money from renting. Others invest money in stock or cryptocurrency and earn profits. The main purpose of this idea is to make a personal waste management platform that makes it possible for people to earn money from selling or investing in their own waste management business.
Why?
waste is usually handled by one or more big waste collection and management companies --> which makes the whole system vulnerable since we rely on only one or a few companies and their business
people produce waste and should have more options on what to do with it
based on their life plan, people should be able to take cash, coupons or invest in their savings or similar fund
boosting the production of personal recycling units
raising awareness of the importance of waste management
How would it work?
Application where you create a profile, choose your account type (service provider or a customer) like in Uber, Lyft or Bolt and start working.
Types of involvment
If you are a customer, you have an option
to arrange pickup of your waste or to deliver it to an address
to check the type, purity and weight of the waste collected and "sold" to the service provider
to find the closest service provider for your type of waste
to cash-out or put your money to work (investments, savings, crypto...)
If you are service provider, you choose
the type of waste collection service you provide (collection, delivery-only)
the type of processing/recycling (pre-processing, processing, recycling - depending on the machine you have)
the machine you use (certified and included on the list of machines that can be found on the platform's webpage; processes the waste)
the type of storage (cold storage for organic waste, normal storage for other, storage for biohazardous waste)
the company you will sell your pre-processed, processed or recycled product to (industrial company close to you based on your product)
Platform-controlled parts of the process
All parts of the recycling process would be controlled by the mother company:
finding companies that will buy the products from the service providers
arranging the price of each product based on purity, demand and location (transport costs)
certification of machines used by the service providers
service of the above-mentioned machines
pre-defined percentage cut of the sold products that each customer will get based on the type, purity and weight
payments, investments, savings (deals with partners)
web and mobile app interface
customer care
The additional effects of this way of earning
people collecting trash from the streets because it means money
people picking up trash from the elderly
new jobs by people picking up waste on their bikes, scooters, in their cars, etc.
less trash on the street
better communication between people in local communities
more detailed waste separation by the user because better separation = more money
collecting trash from beaches (cleaning)
people being able to earn money for their retirement and enjoy it
people using abandoned places, turning them to storages, rent garages, spaces or have it in their backyards
Case scenario
I'm separating trash and now have 3 bags of plastic waste, one bag of paper and 5 bags of biowaste. I mark what type of waste I have in the app and find a local service provider (man with the machine for pre-processing, processing or recycling). I arrange a pick-up of my trash in 2 clicks on my phone and the guy arrives in 5 mins. He scans my barcode, the barcode on the bags and leaves. These bags arrive to the service provider who takes the waste and pre-process it into small shredded pieces of plastic which he sells for plastic cap production to a local company. The biowaste he turns into compost and eventually sells it to the local hostel which uses it for heating. The paper he sells as an aqueous solution for glue production to a friend of his. After a while, I check my app and see that I have 10 kgs of various types of waste in my history and $12 on my balance account. However, I heard my neighbour is also a service provider which has a higher yield to his clients because he bought a better machine and sells the products of higher quality. I decide to deliver the waste to him and start earning 10% more money. In 5 years of waste management, I have earned on my app around $800, but my neighbour, for example, collects trash from the streets, delivers it by himself and earns $5000 a year.
What do you think would be the most complicated part? Is it feasible?
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General comments
Povilas S2 years ago
It seems like an idea that has potential, but I got lost a bit among all the bullet points while reading. Could you maybe explain briefly in simpler words how would it work, like give an explanatory narrative of how would a resident be enabled to (more easily) generate income by selling their own waste?
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jnikola2 years ago
Povilas S I tried to make it clearer for the reader and added a case scenario. Hopefully, it will be easier to understand now. However, it is not the point to make it easier, but to make it a "business-able" thing at all.
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Povilas S2 years ago
J. Nikola Yes, now it's clearer, thanks. I think the biggest drawback to this is logistics. Small amounts of waste are worth very little - a few cents as my guess, so the cost of transporting small amounts of waste to wherever it needs to go would cost more (fuel, human labor, time management, app management, etc.). In other words - the delivery price is not covered.
So unless a person collects larger amounts of waste somewhere in their pantry, basement, garage, etc. this wouldn't work. Collecting the waste then has other issues - smell, processing to make more waste fit in storage space, etc. So it wouldn't make it that much easier as it is now. I mean you can do that already - separate your waste, press/pack it nicely, collect big amounts of it, and sell it to private recycling/waste management companies.
In your scenario, it could maybe work if the same service producer got many requests from residents to sell their waste so that he could then send the pick-up guy to many homes in one drive (with a truck or so) so that the earnings would cover the logistics price. Each of the waste sellers then gets a small share of profit through the app after the process is completed.
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jnikola2 years ago
Povilas S I agree with you and the thing you proposed in the last paragraph seems like a solution to me. Since it's not about arriving in the next few minutes, the deliveries could be planned to save money and allow people to earn some pennies.
jnikola Oct 06, 2022
Please leave the feedback on this idea
Please leave the feedback on this idea
Please leave the feedback on this idea
Please leave the feedback on this idea