\u201cFor me it was easy to use the application because it makes it easier to sell to buyers of the waste\u201d. KOLEKT User<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nMozambique has an acute lack of recycling infrastructure and underfunded municipal waste collection, with less than 1.5% of the 700,000 tonnes of solid waste produced, being recycled.The proportion is even lower in rural areas due to a lack of collection facilities and waste is often burned or dumped on vacant land, and into rivers, lakes and ocean. <\/span><\/p>\nOver the course of the pilot the number of KOLEKT users steadily increased from 10 users in May 2023 to 423 users in July and over 1,800 users at the end of October 2023. Over 380 tonnes of recyclables, averaging 70 kg and EUR 13 per transaction, were traded through the app.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nOver the past six months Topack made over 4,800 transactions and gained over 1,500 users. These are actors throughout the Topack recycling supply chain, 90% are informal waste pickers, and approximately 80% are women.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nOver the same period, AMOR made 600 transactions at its four EcoPoint buying centers. It has registered 600 new sellers of which the most are also informal collectors, mainly women.<\/span><\/p>\nAMOR\u2019s Founder Stephane Temperman said, \u201cI am so convinced by an app like KOLEKT for the circular economy, that I have hired a team of 5 staff to roll it out.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nMozambique does not have Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) legislation in place yet, but is exploring the benefits and complexities in the coming years to help tackle the waste problem.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nKOLEKT is proving to be an efficient solution for countries that depend on the informal sector for waste management. As well as generating proof of purchase of recyclables, it registers the seller, the buyer, the GPS location and photos of the materials collected, helping recyclers to certify their environmental service. Once independently audited, recyclers are able to sell these certificates to the companies producing the waste, in order for them to comply with EPR type legislation or commitments. These certificates are called \u2018plastic credits\u2019 and are designed to make recycling more lucrative, thereby generating more demand for recyclable materials and boosting the circular economy.<\/span><\/p>\nThrough Africa RISE, The learnings from Mozambique will now be shared with other countries in the Southern African (SADC) region, including Angola, which was originally going to be included in this pilot.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Work has concluded on a study to establish if a digital waste management solution could improve waste collection and recycling in Southern Africa. The study, and pilot roll-out of the KOLEKT digital waste management app, was conducted in Mozambique with funding provided by the European Union Africa RISE (Reform for Investment and Sustainable Economies) programme, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7737,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,190],"tags":[277,156,99,147],"featured_news":[34],"class_list":["post-7730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-news-2-2","tag-circular-action","tag-kolekt","tag-recycling","tag-waste-pickers","featured_news-featured"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Digitising Mozambique\u2019s waste supply chain - Circular Action Hub<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n