Trash Tech – how a mobile app for recycling, that doesn’t even require the user to have a phone, is helping waste pickers grow their income and their business
Over the last 18 months in Brazil, Vietnam and Mozambique, informal waste pickers have been using smartphone technology to coordinate the sale of recyclable waste, resulting in increased income for themselves and improved recycling rates in the cities where they operate. There are an estimated 20+ million informal waste pickers in the world, living mostly […]
BVRio on the search for the 2024 Earthshot Prize winners as Official Nominator
Between today (19 Sep) and 15 December 2023 BVRio is in the privileged position to be able to submit nominations for The Earthshot Prize 2024. Along with the other Official Nominators, we are looking for exceptional initiatives which aim to address one of five critical issues facing the planet, one of which is ‘build a […]
KOLEKT waste management app hits 10 thousand transactions
The KOLEKT waste management app, developed by Circular Action, a BVRio group company, has reached 10 thousand transactions. In the 18 months since the app was launched, it has gained over 1000 users in 48 countries. They are actors throughout the recycling supply chain, including informal waste pickers, who assisted in its design and have been testing it […]
200T of waste removed from Guanabara Bay
Our circular economy team has celebrated the milestone of 200 tons of waste collected with the fishers involved in the ‘Fishing for litter in Guanabara Bay’ project and honoured them for International Fisherman’s Day, celebrated on 29 June. The day of recognition highlights this traditional craft’s role in combating ocean pollution, with each piece of […]
Digitising the waste supply chain in Mozambique & Angola
The KOLEKT app is now in the hands of various different types of users in Mozambique and Angola, as part of the first phase of the study and pilot project to establish if a digital waste management solution could improve waste collection and recycling in Southern Africa. During March and April, Circular Action Director, Thierry Sanders, visited the countries to begin […]
BVRio joins Copacabana ‘Circular Beach’ Project
BVRio will play a pivotal role in benchmarking plastic use and waste on Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro until December this year, as part of the ‘Circular Beach’ project run by The Circular Plastics in the Americas Program (CPAP). The 9 month long, multi-partner project aims to reduce plastic waste dumped on beaches, in […]
Successful ‘fishing for litter’ project extended
BVRio’s successful ‘Fishing for litter project’, run in partnership with Italian social enterprise, Ogyre, has this month entered into a third and expanded phase. The project, which sees fishers in Rio de Janeiro’s Guanabara Bay swapping their catch of fish, for a catch of waste twice a week, has been expanded to include a third […]
Digital waste management solution study and pilots for African countries underway
Circular Action is undertaking a study and pilot to establish if a digital waste management solution could improve waste collection and recycling in Southern Africa, starting with Angola and Mozambique. The five-month long study builds on Circular Action’s experience of waste management in developing countries, and its project using the KOLEKT waste management app in […]
Project Update: Used Beverage Carton Recycling in Vietnam
Lesson #1: Innovation requires flexibility. Reflections from Circular Action Director, Thierry Sanders on the first few months of the project, and turning things on their head. ‘Trickle down economics’ doesn’t work. It may have been a term commonly heard by economics students born before 1980. But even in 2022 in Saigon, Vietnam this outdated economic […]
First year for KOLEKT waste management app sees 5400 tonnes of recyclables sold
The KOLEKT waste management app has just turned one, and what a year it’s been! We set out to get the app into the hands of the very people who helped design it, informal waste pickers, and to test it in real world environments. In three different countries, in four very different situations we’ve honed […]