The world’s waste management crisis continues to grow, particularly in the Global South, where only 9% of waste is recycled. However, Nadeera, a pioneering startup, is determined to change this through their innovative AI-driven waste management system. Their innovative approach aims to help the users “Manage your waste the right way”.
Nadeera in their words, “works with municipalities to design and deploy citizen-centric, fit-for-purpose, integrated, and sustainable waste management masterplans. Their focus is on citizens’ outreach to reduce, reuse, and sort waste all enabled by technology; in addition to implementing waste tracing to monitor performance, optimize efficiency, and ensure higher material and value recovery. This enables municipalities to reduce their waste management costs, recover value from waste, and alleviate health and environmental issues due to waste mismanagement”.
Nadeera was founded by Rabih El Chaar and Reem Khattar, Lebanese-born changemakers, who are revolutionizing waste management at home and in the broad Gulf Region. I spoke to Rabih who holds an MBA from INSEAD and extensive international experience. After working in London, Milan and the states in the oil and gas industry and in management consulting.
Then, wanting to make an impact he started working in waste management and he had a realization “I realized that this can be done in a much better way. It can be done in a digitally enabled way”.
From that insight Nadeera started.
How does it works?
Their main tool is the App Yalla Return, “ a technology product focused on four different activities”. “it is a technology product focused on four different activities.
Engagement: A digital app with gamification, information, and an AI algorithm that helps users identify recyclable items by taking a photo. “If you go ai.nadeera.org, you take a picture and tells you if this item is recyclable or not”.
Containment: A hardware solution to ensure separate collection and containment of recyclables, preventing contamination with other waste streams.
Feedback & Incentives: A patented system that provides feedback on recycling performance, offers incentives for good sorting, and educates users on mistakes to improve their recycling efforts. “Recycling or sorting is complex, there are items that are not very clear where they go. And what we do is we try to use technology and give that feedback system and trace”
Impact Communication: Personalized feedback on individual contributions to landfill space savings, CO2 emission reductions, and energy use reduction through recycling.
What is the revenue stream?
Nadeera has 2 revenue streams. They are continually optimizing costs to reduce the overhead for setting up the infrastructure necessary, like smart bins and bags.
· Sponsorships: Funding comes from various entities, including municipalities, community management companies, FMCG companies and waste collection companies. These sponsors seek the services and products provided by the company.
· Sales of Recyclables: Once the recyclables are sorted and packed, they hold significant value. The company sells these materials, including aluminum cans, plastic bottles, cardboard, paper, and textiles, as a secondary revenue stream.
Where is Nadeera currently working?
The company operates in two distinct ways across locations such as Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Riyadh, and Lebanon:
“So we have two ways of operating”, therefore demonstrating the adaptability of the system to different contexts.
· Community Collection System (Developed Economies): In places like Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Riyadh, the company offers a tailored, door-to-door or community-level collection service, working together community management companies or municipalities.. Users simply need to sort their waste and place it outside for collection.
· Buyback Boutiques (Lebanon): In Lebanon instead, the company has established 16 boutique stores where individuals can sell their recyclables for digital money through the app. When users reach a certain amount, they can cash it out as direct cashbacks. The company utilizes a franchise model to partner with local communities and micro-entrepreneurs, providing branding, technology, accounting, and expertise for collecting and selling recyclables. This provides the approach for emerging markets and less structured contexts.
What is the role of technology, particularly regarding AI and image recognition?
In the Global South, where 91% of recyclable items end up in landfills, the company’s innovative approach to leveraging technology and targeted community efforts seeks to address the disparity between effort and reward in recycling. Therefore they leverage technology on two main objectives:
· Reduce Effort: By utilizing technology, the company aims to lower the effort needed for raising awareness, traceability, and collection, maximizing value and minimizing effort for users. “there’s a disparity between the effort that you make and the rewards that you get”.
· Targeted Community Approach: The company serves communities on a smaller scale, working to drive recycling penetration within targeted areas. This strategy helps convert non-recyclers to recyclers quickly and efficiently, leading to operational profitability in a short period of time. “our awareness campaigns to be able to convert people to become recyclers had, we’ve had great numbers on going from 0% of people that are recycling to about 40% in a matter of weeks. And that helps us in being able to reach operational profitability in a very, very quick manner”.
Which have been the impacts do far?
The company has been successful in encouraging behavioral change in communities that were not used to recycling by focusing on three main aspects: “making recycling fun and enjoyable, making it easy and accessible, and using behavioral nudges”. Their branding and imaging are attractive, and “the whole user journey is very welcoming for people to come and give it a go”. The recycling process is made easy by either collecting recyclables at the doorstep or having neighborhood outlets within a short walk. On the third point the company worked with Yale University to study and implement various behavioral nudges to incentivize or disincentivize people to recycle.
A significant impact of their efforts is the ability to convert a community into recyclers.
“the main impact is the ability for us to convert a community in a matter of weeks from being non recyclers to recyclers, and not only for them to recycle, but as well, the quality of recycling that they do is very, very high”.
For example, in Germany, the best country for recycling, collectors still find mistakes in the yellow bags used for recyclables. By providing a feedback mechanism through the technology, Nadeera has achieved critical results.
“by providing that feedback mechanism, we’re able to get more people to recycle. But as well, we’re able to get the quality of recycling to be high in a short period of time. And that’s a major breakthrough that we’ve done”.
And their technology journey has not stopped. Through their newly acquired patent, their AI-enabled process is being developed to become fully automated, allowing for more efficient and cost-effective operations. “we’re actually currently working on that where you put that bag that is QR coded on one side, it comes out, identified and inspected on the other side of your conveyor belt”.
And to facilitate the process even more, The company uses a single large bag for all recyclables, making it easy and simple for users and encouraging engagement. This approach is more accessible, especially for those living in small spaces who might find it challenging to have multiple bags for different types of recyclables. Then “the only thing that they have to do from what they used to do before is put all the things in one bag, we sort them with our partners in the back end, they just have to put everything in one bag”.
Which are the plans for the future?
Nadeera ‘s future plans involve expanding their geographical reach and increasing the percentage of people recycling in the Global South. They aim to grow in the Gulf region and are open to opportunities in Europe, the United States, Africa, and Asia. They seek to collaborate with partners who share their vision, such as investors who have access to emerging markets in waste collection.
And their impact cannot be overlooked .“For every tonne of recyclables that gets diverted, I’m talking about plastics, cardboard, and metals, 3.5 tons of co2 emissions is reduced”.
Nadeera is revolutionizing recycling in the Global South with its AI-driven waste management system. By leveraging technology to lower effort, enhance targeted community outreach, and ensure high-quality recycling, they are achieving remarkable results in converting communities to recyclers within weeks. As they continue to innovate and expand their operations, their contribution to reducing waste and CO2 emissions will only grow, making a significant positive impact on our environment.
To learn more about Nadeera and their work, visit www.nadeera.org