Title / name of your Idea*

Recycleroo

Explain your idea in details:*

Main objective is to transform small communities’ landfills that are environmental bombs into business
models that can improve people’s lives.
Let’s imagine a small community with a population of 5000, located somewhere in the country, 15 km
away from nearest city. The village has 1 unauthorized landfill (~ 2 hectares), situated at the edge of it,
really close to the forest and a lake. What do we do?
1. We lease the land where the landfill is located.
2. We hire jobless locals. Each of them will work in different zones.
3. We divide the land in 5 zones as follows:
A. Recycling area. Zone where our employees will recycle trash. Plastic, glass, paper – deposited and
sold. Food waste – deposited in zone B.
B. Food waste & Compost area. Zone where we will make soil for our plant nursery. Unused soil will be
packed and sold for additional revenue. Packages can be made out of the recycled plastic and paper.
C. Plant nursery. The zone where we will grow plants and sell them. Moreover, in partnership with
Ministry of Environment, we can grow endangered species and replant them in protected areas.
D. Activity area. The goal is to have bee hives (for our plants). Furthermore, our employees can offer
gardening services for local households. Produced honey can be delivered to local kindergartens or schools.
E. Landfill. Old toxic zone that step by step will be cleaned, due to our recycling efforts.
4. At the start, all the garbage that is already present, will be moved to zone E. Once our activity has begun,
garbage depositing will only be allowed in zone A.
5. Through this project, we educate locals about recycling and offer young entrepreneurs the opportunity
to start a small business (honey production or gardening services).

Expected impact of your idea on sustainable development*

Average person delivers ~400 kg of waste per year, while 99% of this waste is deposited in landfills. In a
community of 5000, the landfill should increase by more than 2000 tons each year. Considering waste that
has already been deposited – there are more than 7.000 – 10.000 tons of waste that have to be recycled in a
single 2 hectares’ landfill.
5-year proposal plan:
1st year - hire 15 people and clean 0.75ha of landfill:
a. recycling zone (10 employees) and 200t waste recycled,
b. composting zone (2 employees) and produce 20t of composting soil,
c. plant nursery zone (3 employees) and 2500 plants.
2nd year clean additional 0.25ha for our plant nursery. Hire 2 more employees for recycling and plant
nursery. We should grow 4000 plants.
3rd year clean another 0.25ha and create new activity zone. Hire 1 more employee for our newly installed
30 bee hives. Inform 2000 locals about waste sorting and waste management.
4th year clean 0.25ha for our plant nursery. Hire 1 more employee – raise the number of plants to 8000 and
of bee hives to 50. Also we should introduce gardening services.
5th year landfill will be close to be cleaned where:
a. 0.75ha recycling zone and 10 employees.
b. 0.25ha composting zone and 2 employees (compost production, gardening services).
c. 0.75ha plant nursery and 5 employees. We should plant over 10.000 flowers/trees.
d. 0.25ha activity zone and 3 employees (honey production, gardening services).

At the end of this 5-year plan we should have:

1. 1 unauthorized landfill cleaned.
2. Over 5000 tons of waste recycled.
3. 20 employed locals.
4. Recycling zone created.
5. An additional activity as a business.

Plans for implementation and sustainability*

Our activity can start as a public-private partnership. First of all, we should lease the land from local
authorities. Considering we solve a general public problem, the land should be leased for free (maybe in
exchange for future gardening services or plants). Secondly, Ministry of Environment should be involved
in our project as they can help in many aspects: from tax incentives for the company – to search of funding
opportunities (European Commission Environment funding).

The great thing about this business model is that in 2-3 years it should generate revenue to sustain itself.
1. Recycled waste – plastic, paper, glass, metal, wood. Besides being sold, it can be used as raw materials
for our Activity zone. Plastic and paper will be recycled into packaging for our compost - or recycled
paper/wood can be used for briquettes production.

2. Compost – used as soil for our plants. Moreover, can be sold for additional revenue. There are at least
2-3 big farms in each community. They generate compost material, that can be used in Biomass briquettes
production.

3. Plant nursery – flowers, trees, shrubs, bushes can be sold. We can plant strawberries or other fruity
shrubs for additional revenue.

4. Activity zone – honey production, gardening services for community, briquettes production etc.

This business model can be applied to any community all over the world where there is a landfill and
willingness to change things. Moreover, small partnerships in regional areas can only improve this
networking model. For example, one community is active in honey production, another – mushrooms
production or strawberries production and at the end all this can be traded inside this network.

Employees don’t need special skills or studies.