Everything Under The Sun: Cash For Trash Leads The Way To Recycling

Monday, February 20, 2017

Cash For Trash Leads The Way To Recycling

Winners of Catapult Your Business competition, including Stephany Lawson (middle).

Not many women in Ghana are software programmers. But one woman, Stephany Lawson, does have that skill, and she's been putting it to good use in the way that she has always dreamed. She has used this skill and talent to solve a problem.

Ghana does have recycling facilities for its waste, but here is the problem, not many people know where they are located. As a result landfills keep getting filled with recyclable items, while the recycling plants are underutilized. As dumps located in neighborhoods keep getting filled and water accumulates around the trash, they become breeding grounds for mosquitoes, which can cause cholera and malaria, thus threatening public health.

Ms. Lawson went to work, with her partner, Frank Adibi, to create a mobile app (and also a company), TRASHCASH. The app itself helps people locate recycling drop off points, while helping its users to determine what trash is recyclable. The company founders worked with recycling companies to create some of the recycling drop-off points, which became permanent.

Now, once the company, TrashCash Inc., became reality, the functions behind the app expanded. The company developed a model in which they marketed throughout various neighborhood, paying individuals to buy back their recyclables, thus giving their customers an incentive to recycle. The company itself also added more functions, like separating, packing, and baling the recyclables. Then they negotiate with recycling companies to get the best prices for these bales. It has become a winning business model, providing both incentives to recycle and an income for the company and its workers.

TrashCash's poster for now accepting newspapers.

Now for another part of the TrashCash Inc.'s functions; it gives back to the community, in the form of scholarships. After all, because of the education she received, Ms. Lawson was able to develop the app, along with her partner. Plus, the scholarships also support recycling. Scholarships are for pre-Tertiary education programs. In order to receive one of five scholarships, students must be actively involved in recycling activities. In addition, once they have achieved a scholarship, students must maintain a satisfactory academic rating in order to receive free books, uniforms, shoes, and a monthly stipend, all of which are part of the scholarship.