Wecyclers is a for-profit social enterprise which is based in Nigeria that aims to incentivise recycling through text message points that can be exchanged for everyday items. Families who sign up for the scheme receive points depending on how many kilograms of recyclable material they hand over. Furthermore, they promote environmental sustainability, socioeconomic development, and community health by providing convenient recycling services in densely populated urban neighbourhoods.

People living in slum conditions without formal waste collection are at risk of property damage; the spread of diseases such as malaria, cholera, and dysentery; and undue psychological stress. Improperly disposed trash tends to clog gutters and drainage canals leading to floods during rainfall. This trash can also create stagnant water pools that are ideal conditions for mosquitoes and other disease vectors to breed. Unmanaged trash heaps also create a burden for community residents who are forced to navigate obstructed roadways and deal with the smoke from frequent trash fires.

Wecyclers gives households a chance to capture value from their waste while providing a reliable supply of materials to the local recycling industry. The rewards-for-recycling platform incentivizes people in low-income communities to capture value from recyclable waste. Wecyclers built this platform on a fleet of relatively cheap, and locally assembled, cargo bikes called “wecycles” that the collectors use to pick up recyclable waste from households and deliver the materials to the collection, sorting, and packaging hubs located around Lagos. As they hand in the materials, the company reward the service subscribers with points per kilogram of recycled waste, which they can exchange for essential goods such as food and household items.

Wecyclers has partnered with major brands such as Coca-Cola to provide the prizes to the service subscribers and got recognition from the Lagos Waste Management Authority which has already expressed interest in collaboration. The company affected in total over 60,000 beneficiaries, reached in total over 20,000 households and collected 8494t of recyclables.

Photo on Wecyclers website