COLIBA: plastic waste collection and environmental protection

In Côte d’Ivoire, the company COLIBA is trying to revalorize plastic waste using web and mobile support. Through a platform, users have access to their mobile account and can schedule garbage collections. This garbage, converted into points, then becomes bonuses. In addition, users receive environmental advice.

Based in Accra, Ghana, COLIBA answers a simple question: how do you manage the tons of plastic waste that accumulate? The company has implemented a garbage collection program through a platform. It then carries out the sorting of waste and offers users the opportunity to profit from it (money, waste sorting equipment, school kits).

Environmental and societal impact

A ton of waste collected every month and 475 users since February 2016, COLIBA works exclusively with women in its sorting center. This choice is justified by the fact that they are vulnerable people, more exposed to poverty and less exposed to the production and financial systems. The company’s commitment is to make them feel more self-sufficient.

Empowering women

COLIBA is intended for households, restaurants, hotels, schools, markets, shopping centers, and any other usual or occasional garbage producer. As well as all those who want to profit from garbage collection. COLIBA thus revalorizes plastic waste and contributes to the preservation of the environment. It makes it possible to reduce this waste in a measurable manner.

A market to conquer…

The recycling market for plastic waste in Côte d’Ivoire is estimated at more than 120 billion CFA francs, or more than 180 million euros, according to the National Agency for Urban Sanitation (ANASUR). The company plans to capture 300 tons of plastic waste per month. That’s 15 percent of the plastic waste in the city of Abidjan. The goal is to implement the solution across the country.

The initiative is part of the sustainable city project initiated by the Ivorian government. We must not forget that plastic waste has a harmful impact on health and the environment. If not recycled, it ends up in nature and oceans, often ingested by animals. In terms of health, recent studies have shown the harmful effects of plastic on the human body (for example, reduced fertility in humans). Primarily due to two finger-pointing compounds: bisphenol (BPA) and di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP). Finally its low cost makes its use massive and disposable.

The objective of COLIBA in the coming months is to deploy the project in Abidjan in the 10 municipalities of the city. But COLIBA does not stop there! The company will also be established in two major cities in West Africa: Lomé and Lagos. In Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, there are no startups specializing in waste management.

By contrast, informal recycling (more or less organized channels where women go door to door to collect plastic bottles and sell them) are implemented under unsatisfactory conditions (sorting directly in garbage or landfills). COLIBA, offers African users an innovative solution for the collection of their plastic waste that it sometimes sells to recycling companies.

The future looks bright for this initiative. Indeed, with a catch of 300 tons of waste per month in 10 municipalities in the city of Abidjan, the next 3 years will see a growth margin of more than 20% of the activity. The company hopes to achieve a turnover in millions of euros in Côte d’Ivoire…

Photo credits: COLIBA