New innovative technology set to revolutionise recycling sector

Mpetha Mushoeshoe, a waste picker in Johannesburg, shows off an SMS he received from the BanQu recycling track and trace platform. Supplied image.

Mpetha Mushoeshoe, a waste picker in Johannesburg, shows off an SMS he received from the BanQu recycling track and trace platform. Supplied image.

Published Nov 7, 2021

Share

Johannesburg - For over a year now, Zolani Fololo has been earning a living by salvaging and selling recyclables in the city.

He does this through his buy-back centre, which is located in Johannesburg.

As a waste trader, Fololo buys waste from individual waste collectors, reclaimers and street waste pickers, recycles them and then sells the recycled waste to various companies.

While he enjoys getting his hands dirty, Fololo does admit it isn't an easy job and has faced many tough challenges since the launch of his buy-back centre in June last year.

“It’s been a roller-coaster ride. I’ve learnt a lot of lessons about the recycling itself, working with reclaimers and different stakeholders involved in waste management, like Pikitup.”

One of the biggest challenges he’s faced has been to track and accurately record his transactions with waste pickers.

And keeping records of all of his transactions has proved to be a huge stumbling block for Fololo and many other buy-back centres in South Africa.

Now that’s all set to change with the introduction of a new system, which is set to revolutionise how recyclable materials are traded, tracked and traced in South Africa.

An innovative technology called BanQu is now being rolled out to recycling buy-back centres across the country.

The digital platform will help buy-back centres accurately record and track their recycling transactions with waste pickers at the tap of a button on their cell phones or any other internet connected device.

It will also allow buy-back centres to trace the origins of the recycling – while providing a real-time business management tool enabling them to better understand and manage their businesses.

South Africa’s PET plastic producer responsibility organisation (PRO), PETCO, is driving the rollout of the BanQu technology in a project called Up, which commenced in 2021 and is funded by The Coca-Cola Foundation.

Over the next year, the system will be rolled out to 100 centres identified by PETCO, with 10 centres in Gauteng, Limpopo, the Western and Eastern Cape, who are already live and transacting on the system so far.

Fololo’s buy-back centre is one of the centres in Gauteng that have gone live with BanQu .

Zolani Fololo using the BanQu platform

He says since using BanQu, his work has been simplified, and it’s made his job much easier.

“BanQu has been a blessing. We can manage better. It gives us records of what we buy and sell. We get daily and monthly reports, and we have our suppliers on record in this system. It has also simplified our lives. We were recently talking to a group of reclaimers who supply us, about cashless payments, and they seemed excited about it too.”

Fololo says he is also saving precious time now that he is using the new technology.

“We are saving time. Hence, we don’t have to write everything down now. We can see the proceedings of the business from anywhere from our phones. We’ve reduced chances of cash office money theft too.”

Once registered on the BanQu system, the buy-back centres can capture the quantity of recyclable material bought from waste pickers, as well as the price paid for it and where it was collected.

This allows buy-back centres to know the quantity of all materials at any given time.

The waste pickers are also kept in the loop, and in turn, receive an SMS receipt for each transaction and can keep track digitally of their income earned through sales to various buy-back centres.

To date, the 10 live centres have registered over 1 400 waste pickers on the BanQu system, and more than 2 350 tonnes of recyclable material worth more than R5.7 million have been recorded.

Fololo says the technology has revolutionised his business.

Zolani Fololo tracking his transcations on the BanQu platform

“I’d suggest to many other buy-back centres to start using BanQu. I hope it will assist in other challenges our business is facing, such as double standards of the bigger companies taking advantage of small, black-owned initiatives like ours.”

Suzan Banda was one of the first to register her buy-back centre in Etwatwa, Ekurhuleni, on BanQu earlier this year.

She says running her business has also become much easier.

“I used to write in an invoice book, which took so long. This is much quicker, and the waste picker immediately gets an SMS with all the details about the weight of the material and the price,” says Banda.

“I’m already seeing the difference it’s made to my business. I’m getting more customers because I can process the transactions quicker.”

PETCO CEO Cheri Scholtz says BanQu is helping to integrate the informal sector into the recycling value chain.

“Because informal waste collection was based largely on cash transactions, the majority of the estimated 52 000 waste pickers in South Africa typically had no record of their earnings and so remained largely unbanked and unable to access the kinds of services available to those who were self-employed or had a record of employment in the formal sector,” says Scholtz.

“The benefit of the technology is that both waste pickers and buy-back centres are able to build up permanent digital financial records, which could be used to access credit to grow their businesses.

He says PETCO supports buy-back centres countrywide by sponsoring infrastructure, essential equipment and training to help them grow and improve efficiencies.

“Adding digital technology to the mix is the logical next step to empower these small businesses and take them to the next level.”

The system would also provide a more accurate view of their significant contribution to the recycling value chain and circular economy, says Scholtz.

Mark Geoghegan, BanQu’s Business Solutions Architect, says the technology was developed to empower informal waste collectors in recycling supply chains.

“Farmers, waste pickers, and labourers that are part of the supply chains of the world’s biggest brands, can now build a digital ledger of their business transactions,” says Geoghegan.

“They can use this verified transactional history to access better interest rates and inputs and become banked. BanQu enables a Brand’s business to provide these critical roles players in these supply chains with an “economic passport” out of poverty.”

He says the technology is also simple to use.

“We currently have over 1 500 reclaimers registered, and all materials that are bought from the reclaimers at the Buy-back centres are being captured on BanQu.”

“The reclaimers are now able to build up a complete history of every transaction they complete with the Buy-back centres (with receipts sent via SMS), and the Buy-back centres now have a mechanism, via any internet connected device, to view quantity and price of all materials bought from reclaimers as well as manage their inventory on hand across each site more effectively, in real time.”

There are also no costs involved.

“There are no costs for the buy-back centres and reclaimers. All the costs are carried by PETCO and their partners. Reclaimers, Buy-back centres and Recycling companies can now all transact via BanQu and have real-time records of all materials bought or sold, at zero cost implications for registering or using the software.”

The Saturday Star