Innovative payment platform informal waste reclaimers

Coca-Cola in South Africa and BanQu are rolling out an innovative payment platform to financially empower informal waste reclaimers and buyback centres in an exciting boost to the local recycling sector.

More than 60 000 waste reclaimers in South Africa earn a living by collecting packaging waste, with many being unable to find work or formal employment. Much of what reclaimers collect is sold through small buyback centres before ultimately reaching large recyclers.

“Waste reclaimers who collect waste packaging perform one of the toughest, yet most important, jobs in the circular economy and, up until now, they have remained mostly invisible and unbanked,” says David Drew, director: Sustainability at Coca-Cola Africa.

The development of the innovative, blockchainbased BanQu solution will provide a platform to “financially empower waste reclaimers and small buyback centres across South Africa”.

What is BanQu?

BanQu is a blockchain-based software platform and economic identity technology that enables a secure and immutable platform for creating economic opportunities for people around the world living in extreme poverty. The first of its kind, BanQu is being used in 40+ countries across more than a million last-mile-first-mile beneficiaries today.

Major brands like AB InBev use BanQu in their sourcing and circularity value chains in Africa and Latin America. In February 2020, BanQu launched is first African office in Johannesburg. It has also become the leading platform for ensuring Covid-19 supplies are reaching the most vulnerable nations and communities in the Middle East and North Africa region.

How it works

BanQu creates a permanent, personal record of the transactions for each waste picker, enabling them to demonstrate their earnings in order to access credit. It also enables cashless transactions that reduce the risk associated with cash for both reclaimers and buyback centres, and enables direct financial support for waste reclaimers.

By recording the contribution of the informal sector as a whole to the recycling value chain, the platform is set to improve both understanding and recognition of the important contribution of waste reclaimers and buyback centres.

Coca-Cola selected BanQu as a partner based on the impact they have achieved to date and their track record of working with small-scale farmers across Africa.

Since the launch in mid-February, the system has already registered over 300 waste pickers and recorded over 4 900 transactions, totalling over 200 000 kg of recyclables. Ashish Gadnis, CEO, BanQu, says the platform helps both individual waste reclaimers as well as small buyback centres.

“BanQu’s automated online supply chain tracking and payment system uses blockchain technology to track and trace recycled material across the value chain, providing price transparency for both buyers and sellers. Reclaimers don’t require expensive smartphones – the system sends a simple SMS when a payment is processed.”

The payments solution is also fully integrated with mobile money applications, enabling reclaimers to withdraw cash from ATMs or store their earnings in secure e-wallets.

Most importantly, the new technology enables waste reclaimers to develop a financial record and promotes their financial inclusion into the economy. Waste reclaimers can build a financial history – an economic passport that validates their existence in a global supply chain. The platform enables a traceable, transparent and, most importantly, equitable value chain that empowers waste reclaimers as well as buyback centres.

For small buyback centres, many of them operating in township areas, BanQu enables owners to better understand their businesses using automated recording and tracking of transactions. Geolocation capabilities provide valuable data in real time about types of materials collected in particular areas.

For brand owners such as Coca-Cola, the platform provides a useful tool, as the company supports and empowers waste reclaimers and meets its World Without Waste targets to collect and recycle a bottle or can for each one it sells by 2030.

“From a sustainability perspective, this is a very exciting and innovative technology that not only benefits those working in the recycling value chain but is a step change in our collective understanding and our ability to support this critical part of the circular economy,” says Drew. The roll-out builds on BanQu’s successes in other African countries and in Latin America.

“BanQu is deeply rooted in a simple fact that millions of the poorest work tirelessly in our landfills, recycling centres and our streets, and they deserve a better future. We are thrilled with this partnership and look forward to scaling it,” concludes Gadnis.