DORNA: A Socially Inclusive System to Reduce Plastic Waste

Challenge

As part of its global commitment to safeguard the environment, Nestlé Egypt devised a Plastic Roadmap comprised of three pillars:

• Develop packaging for the future

• Help shape a waste-free future

• Drive new behavior and understanding

In an initiative to help shape a waste-free future and in compliance with EU directives for Extended Producer Responsibility (an environmental policy in which the cost of pollution is extended to the producers), Nestlé Egypt committed to recover and recycle as much as plastic as it produces to achieve plastic waste neutrality - aiming to recycle 14,000 tons of PET plastic by 2021 and 28,000 tons by 2024. Half of Cairo's municipal waste is collected by the informal community and nearly 80% of that waste is recovered and recycled. With this in mind, Nestlé Egypt sought out to design a scalable and sustainable industry-wide solution that engages with the informal sector's waste value chain to increase the recycling and recovery rates of PET plastic whilst simultaneously improving their livelihood in more than one front.

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Approach

To meet this challenge, Nestlé Egypt and CID Consulting designed 'DORNA', a reverse credit system that incentivizes actors in the informal sector across the PET value chain to increase quantities of materials recovered. The main idea behind the reverse credit system is to:

• Provide incentive for the informal waste sector to recycle more PET, increasing the current collection rate of post-consumption PET in Egypt

• Exchange reverse credits with cash payments for each actor in the PET waste value chain after collecting the minimum quantity per month

• Propose a socially and environmentally impactful framework of Extended Producer Responsibility for the packaging industry

• Start with the largest informal recycling community in Egypt, the Zabbaleen of Manshiyet Nasser with plans to expand across Greater Cairo and new governorates.


The process begins with a cluster of value chain actors (VCAs) and identifying their role in recovering and recycling PET plastic. Once identified, each VCA is incentivized to recover and recycle a minimum quantity threshold per month to receive reverse credit. To ensure a robust tracking system linked with e-payment for value chain actors, a tailored digital platform was created where value chain actors can confirm and track transactions via SMS. A team of field coordinators was assembled to verify quantities collected and transactions made between each value chain actor, in addition to managing onboarding processes and providing technical support. Incentives are disbursed to VCAs’ e-wallets at the end of each month based on the quantities collected and can be cashed out through Fawry, Orange and other supporting actors.

Results

DORNA was designed to simultaneously create environmental, social, and economic impact. It benefits households, the city, the government, and the environment by creating an additional source of revenue for informal waste recyclers, covering the cost of door-to-door household collection, improving their livelihoods and supporting their recycling businesses. Since its pilot launch in December 2019 and as of February 2021:

• 10,000+ tons of PET plastic have been recovered and recycled.

• 1200+ VCAs are actively participating in DORNA- all of whom receive their financial incentives directly to their e-wallets.

• 20% of value chain actors are represented by women – who have increased their spending on households and their children, especially on healthcare and education, with their additional source of income.

• EGP 7.9 million has been paid out to value chain actors.

• 12 recycling factories have been traded.


DORNA also marks a milestone for private-public sector collaboration in waste management and environmental sustainability in Egypt. With support from the Ministry of Environment, DORNA set an innovative and socially inclusive framework for Extended Producer Responsibility, paving the way for players in Egypt's plastic packaging industry to follow suit.

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

We would like to thank the CID team for all the long hours and dedication to designing our innovation process.

The execution of this innovation process was supported with CID’s organizational network analysis tool, which provided great insight within our organization, allowing us to gain a deeper understanding of its functional, social and strategic networks. The CID team worked closely with our team throughout the process, providing strategic and consistent support. CID’s professional and timely commitment really has helped us kick-start our innovation process.

Thank you for making this happen!

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Heba Makhlouf
Head of Investment Relations & Innovation, SODIC

I would like to seize this opportunity to thank CID Consulting for all their hard work throughout the COVID-19 lockdown situation and all the constraints we are all going through, as well as for their patience in processing the assignment.We now hope there will be a strong commitment from the key decision-makers to implement the recommendations of the report through the project and look forward to a successful operationalization of these recommendations.

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Dahlia Lotayef
Lead Environmental Specialist Environment, Natural Resources and Blue Economy Global Practice Middle