It is the end of the first week of the IFA fellowship programme 2021 Cycle. Yes! One gone, three more weeks to go. And on a normal day, I would have felt exhaustion after the stress of the first week and begin to question why I am doing all these in the first place. Trust me, it was very hectic – synchronous classes, Asynchronous classes, the numerous materials to study, hackathon, personal branding pod – it was just like undergraduate studies all over again (this I am sure most of you can relate with as an ex-graduate or a student in any Nigerian Educational Institution). However, there is something different here, I am rather more curious, more engaging, and if there any word that describes stress in a positive light, that I would go for it. Yea! I got the word, “Grit”. That word kept ringing in my ears every time I was losing momentum. It was the most important IFA core value I imbibed this week and I am very sure will be vital to me for the rest of my life.
Enough of the digression let’s talk about why I am writing this article. One proposition that stands IFA out amongst equals is their mission statement which is
“to create the next generation of African innovators while supporting existing innovators, strengthening the whole innovation ecosystem”
And in a bid to achieve the above, all IFA fellows are being taught both in theory and practice the rudiments of business and entrepreneurship. And as an aspiring “Innovative” Entrepreneur, it is important to understand the nitty-gritty of the Design Thinking process which is summarized into five stages – Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, and Test:
A large part of week one’s learning centered around the first two stages of Empathize and Define. Here, it was pretty clear why a successful product or business must be able to connect, understand, get a real insight into the challenges faced by potential customers, and very well define it succinctly.
So, let’s get to the practical, fellows were divided into hackathon groups base on problems they found were interesting or passionate about to solve. As an Environmental Enthusiast, I opted for the Waste Management Recycling problem. Here, I met four other passionate fellows (Ibukun, Blessing, Obafemi, and Arafat) who were interested in solving the same problem. Putting what we had learned in practice, there were a lot of problem definition theories and opinions (Link). It was very engaging intellectually. However, after so much back and forth, we modified and voted for the best problem statement that captures the problem we intend to get solved as thus:
“Waste in Nigeria is more likely burned or improperly disposed leading to unprecedented environmental degradation as well as very low recycling efforts which stands currently at <10% - the question remains how might we increase recycling awareness, encourage recycling and facilitate the closeness of recycling facilities to users?"
Having Identified and defined our problem statement as best as we could, we initiated the process of reaching out to potential customers by creating a Primary Market Research (PMR) survey. Potential customers interviewed had a similar User persona as Efe:
With time constraints we prepared some open-ended questions that will help us truly understand how these potential customers feel about the problem:
1. Why do you or why don't you recycle?
2. How far would you go to drop off recycling items?
3. Would you recycle if it were not immediately beneficial to you?
4. Would you recycle if the cost of purchasing items is reduced for items that can be recycled?
5. Do you think recycling gives us a better environment?
6. Is recycling a waste of time if nothing can be generated from it?
7. What would change your mind towards recycling?
8. How do you dispose of your plastic materials versus how you think they should be disposed of?
9. Do you know about or have heard about recycling?
10. On a scale of 1-5, do you practice recycling?
11. Do you know how long plastics take to decompose?
12. Would you buy products whose waste is less harmful to you?
13. How do you get rid of plastic wastes?
14. Do you think burning plastic waste is bad?
15. Would you prefer another method of plastic disposal? Why?
16. Do you participate in plastic recycling? Why?
17. How challenging do you think plastic disposal is?
We had 19 respondents who gave very revealing responses. Deep insights from the responses showed that:
• Most of our respondents are aware of what recycling is all about but NOT why they should recycle or how important it is. Others are quite aware but are faced with different challenges such as lack or no presence of recycling hubs around, the stress involved and the fact that it could sometimes be very expensive makes it all the more unreasonable for them to actually recycle. Thus, it was not surprising that just about 27% of respondents actually know so much about plastic degradation.
• However, even at that, everybody disposes waste, right? So, base on the responses, over 70% of respondents actually disposes of these plastics alongside their waste, while 10% affirmed they burn them, the remaining 20% separates plastic from other waste and either sell to recycling firms or hand over to waste management firms.
• For a large number of persons, they are actually more concerned about getting these recyclables properly disposed than whatever benefit they might hope to get. Up to 70% of respondents would rather recycle even without an immediate benefit.
I was personally surprised at that statistics because that is typically un-Nigerian. Yes! See the data for yourself.
We know ourselves. It is more about “what can I get” than “what I have to offer”. And it was pretty much touching for me to realize that people can put their personal gains aside for the collective purpose. It’s a very deep insight for me.
• Base on the premise of challenges hindering people from recycling, it was not surprising at the suggested possible solutions to remove the hindrances ranging from availability & proximity of recycling centers, education & awareness campaign, and monetary rewards.
• For most respondents, waste/plastic recycling is very challenging because there are no adequate mechanisms, processes in place to ensure proper disposal. More so, even if these mechanisms are in place, a lot of persons would not comply.
In my perspective and putting together what our respondents have said. I strongly deduce and feel that recycling of waste or plastic is not just a menace that can be easily overcome or solved by an engineering solution. By implication, even if the perfect solution is in place, a lot of persons more likely may not recycle. Why? there is an element of social engineering I got to understand from the response that has been missing. There is a culture around waste management recycling that has been with us over the years which emboldens and encourages indiscriminate disposal of waste. After all, there are current waste/recycling processes currently being used, backed by governments but yet not very effective. Further proving that, this is not a typical engineering problem that can be fixed with engineering solutions. It requires a social and behavioral change to help make the proposed engineering solution a success.
In summary, to effectively tackle the waste/plastic recycling challenge in Nigeria, there is a need to holistically find a sustainable solution from both social and engineering perspectives. And as such, the hackathon team had a brief discussion to adjust the problem statement as thus:
“Waste in Nigeria is more likely burned or improperly disposed leading to unprecedented environmental degradation as well as very low recycling efforts which stands currently at <10% - the question remains how might we increase the awareness of plastic environmental impact, encourage recycling and facilitate the closeness of recycling facilities to users?”
The phrase “increase the awareness of plastic environmental impact” replaced “increase recycling awareness” to place emphasis on the most common recyclable item (Plastic) causing environmental havoc which an average person can relate with. This is to drive grassroot social change in behavior towards recycling as a whole using a relatable recyclable. And I am super excited at what the Team would come up with as a solution base on this primary market research data.
Kindly find the results of the Primary Market Survey HERE