From Waste to Education: Scaling Circular Solutions in Nigeria’s Recycling Sector

Executive Summary. With Nigeria’s plastic recycling market expected to grow from 2 million tons of waste in 2020 to approximately 3.5 million tons by 2030, tackling this enormous challenge is more important than ever. To address this, Evan Greer and a team of MBA students worked with a Nigerian social venture focused on collecting recyclable material develop a plan to make their vision of transforming plastic waste into a product that can benefit the Nigerian education system a reality. Evan and his team assessed the feasibility of this endeavor, analyzed potential products the organization could produce, and developed a robust business plan to create plastic-based construction materials to help build schools cheaper and in a shorter timeframe.

Importance. This project was immensely important given both the plastic waste and educational crises occurring in Nigeria and the position of the client organization as one of the leading social ventures in the country attempting to address these challenges. The effort was meaningful for the team members, as it was an opportunity to assist both with a significant sustainability challenge, but also develop a better understanding and appreciation of the people and organizations trying to overcome these challenges, in a variety of ways and settings.

Impact and Reach. The goal for the project was to develop a business plan for the client that would allow them to utilize the recyclable material they were collecting to produce a product that would in some way help address the educational crisis in Nigeria. While the client initially desired to pursue classroom desks, the team analyzed a variety of products and the needs of the education sector to determine the best fit. The objectives of the project were:

1) Assess the feasibility of using the plastic waste that the client already collects to produce classroom desks as well as the feasibility of becoming a manufacturer
2) Assess other potential products to produce if classroom desks are not feasible
3) Develop a business plan for the chosen product

Delivery on these objectives was measured through the amount of primary and secondary research conducted, as well as development of a final, comprehensive report and presentation of our findings and recommendations. Success was measured by delivering a complete, comprehensive research report and recommendation to the client to the best of the team’s abilities that met the stated objectives / scope of work above. The ultimate goal for the project is for the client to be able to implement the recommended business plan. Delivery of our recommendations to the client organization went well, the client greatly appreciated the insights into their business model and potential additions and intended to incorporate the recommendations.

Collaborators. The client for this project was a Nigerian based social venture focused on waste management. They utilize an incentive-based program to collect recyclable materials from individual collectors and waste pickers, rewarding them with “points” that they can accumulate and use to redeem or shop for household items. The client also partners with corporations and schools for waste auditing, consulting, and educational programs. The client came to the Anderson AMR program by way of the UCLA IoES, who was aiding the client to realize their vision. The rest of the team that worked on the project were MBA students.

Your Role Well Defined. I have had several roles on this team that qualify as being in a leadership capacity to further the efforts of the team and of the client organization. First, I was the principal coordinator for our research efforts. In this capacity I led the team through hypotheses generation to address our scope of work, then detailed specific pathways to obtain the information that was needed to prove or disprove those hypotheses by way of primary research (e.g., interviews and surveys) and secondary research (e.g., research or market reports). As the research coordinator I also developed the consumer survey that was utilized to gain a better perspective on the viewpoints of Nigerian consumers and their relationship with recycling. Within the research the team conducted, I was responsible for our industry analysis segment, conducting interviews and research into how the recycling industry in Nigeria operates. In addition to being the research coordinator, as the only team member with consulting experience, I led the team through storyboarding and development of our deliverables for the client. I was able to educate my team members on storytelling approaches, communication strategies, and qualitative/quantitative analysis techniques to enable the team’s success in achieving the client’s goals.