Lanz Maui Chua
Franchette Romjin Kim Miller
Dhean Cleiyoh Bartolome
Derek Samuel Sy
De La Salle University Manila
Pia Manalastas
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Trash Cash PH developed a mobile application that rewards its users with points when they collect plastic materials and deposit them at designated drop-off stations. The rewards include vouchers for eco-friendly products from their partner eco-merchants and necessities, which the company routinely changes according to the partner communities’ needs. The company’s primary goal is to teach people proper solid waste management and help them develop habits that reduce improper plastic wastage in the environment.
Engr. Benjoe Vidal founded Trash Cash PH in 2019 when he joined the Philippines’ attempt at the largest hackathon in the world, in which he won as the second runner-up. The funds he earned from the competition jump-started his journey to develop an innovative and revolutionary application that turns waste into rewards for its users. It is a mobile application that rewards users with points for depositing plastic materials from the company’s drop-off locations. Before the company places drop-off stations, communities or Barangays need to communicate and partner with the company since the company will be conducting a training program for the proper solid waste management and the primary usage of its application. Once everyone is informed about what the company does and how it works, drop-off locations will strategically be set up to be accessible to all community members. After a month, the company will collect the plastic materials from the drop-off stations, deliver them to partner recycling companies that pay the company, and turn them into school materials like tables and chairs.
“We aim to revolutionize waste management through digitalization and utilization of data.” - Engr. Benjoe Vidal
One of the company’s first community partners is in Cabangan, Zambales, a community in the coastal area where Engr. Vidal and his colleagues observed the plastic problem in the ocean and seashores. By introducing their application and teaching proper solid waste management, they noticed a reduction in the community’s usage and improper wastage of plastics.
Their application is dynamically designed to offer unique rewards per community, like how rural areas would need necessities like rice and other crops and urban areas would prefer vouchers for eco-friendly products over harvested crops. The people of Cabangan maximized the company’s reward system by turning their collected plastic trash into rice, which they used to feed their families.
“I’m a regular traveler… throughout my journey, I couldn’t resist the waste everywhere, especially plastics that destroy our environment.” Engr. Vidal has been traveling all over the Philippines as his hobby, but the problem of plastic is one of the consistent problems he sees in every place he went in. As he further researched the plastic problems of the Philippines, he realized that: “Plastics continue to end up in landfills or worse, in oceans.” This problem frustrated him to the point where he started thinking of ways to alleviate plastic pollution in line with his expertise, which is software engineering. Engr. Vidal said: “Being a software engineer for eight years, I developed the app that can empower communities and create awareness to encourage people to participate in recycling to increase plastic recovery.”
By integrating his experience and passion for environmental preservation, Engr. Vidal started planning the foundational aspects of creating the Trash Cash PH application. Eventually, he joined the Philippine Hackathon 2019 with just two members. A year after he established his social enterprise, the COVID-19 pandemic broke out. However, this did not stop Engr. Vidal and his team from pursuing their company’s initiative to provide a digitalized and revolutionary solution to the plastic problem in the Philippines.
Trash Cash PH impacts its partner communities with short-term economic and long-term behavioral effects that unite in preserving the environment. Since Trash Cash PH offers incentives for depositing plastic materials at their drop-off stations, rural areas enormously benefit from their rewards that can be used as another food source for families.
Last August 2022, Trash Cash PH operated on Samal Island, a remote island near Davao del Norte, Philippines. Engr. Vidal said, "Before we (Trash Cash PH) arrived, the plastics there had no value because there were no nearby upcycling companies that buy plastic materials. However, when we arrived, they (community partners in Samal) started to collect and segregate their plastic wastes… realizing that they can earn points that they use to redeem rewards." Since the company offers a dynamic reward system, it specifically designed the rewards in Samal island to be mostly rice and other crops as rewards.
From a long-term perspective, Engr. Vidal explored the results of one of their first initiatives in Cabangan, Zambales, Philippines. Engr. Vidal said: "I realized that my initiative can solve, in its little ways, our problems in plastic." In that community alone, Engr. Vidal saw different changes from the internal actions of its members by saying: "I saw the behavioral change from our community partners… most of them are now segregating plastics… a great improvement to managing their wastes at a household level ." Because of the company, Engr. Vidal influenced communities in the Philippines to make collecting and segregating plastics a habit and routine.
Trash Cash PH has several revenue streams to make its social enterprise sustainable. The primary source of revenue comes after the plastic materials collected from the drop-off stations and delivered to the upcycling companies for payment.
Engr. Vidal explained: "After we collect it (plastic materials) from the community partners, we deliver it to upcycling partner companies, and they pay us. But in the island setup, they do not buy the plastics that we collect from community partners." However, the company still has other models of revenue like their "offsetting model," where they resell the finished products from their upcycling partner companies that were initially supplied by Trash Cash PH. It then places the products in Trash Cash PH's marketplace, wherein products range from the products of partner eco-merchants (where users can use their vouchers) to the upcycling companies' finished products.
Because the company's innovation is in line with the government's goal for the environment, Trash Cash PH capitalized on this opportunity. Recently, the Philippine government passed the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) law of 2022. Engr. Vidal explained, "The EPR law requires high-earning companies to collect at least 20% of plastics that they produce from the environment." Because of the EPR law, companies have partnered with Trash Cash PH to track their plastic data individually. Their application provides real-time data about the amount of plastic waste generated in a specific area, which corporations pay for the subscription of the Trash Cash PH's system. This system also generates data for plastic waste and collections for particular individuals or groups.
"We (employees) do not earn from this; though the company is earning, we choose to bring all the revenue back to the company." Engr. Vidal said. The company's employees sacrifice their time, effort, and energy to make their solution reach out to more communities within the country. Engr. Vidal opens their company to "people who have the passion and love for the environment."
SDG# 12: Responsible Consumption and Production; SDG# 13: Climate Action; SDG# 14: Life Below Water; SDG# 15: Life on Land
Trash Cash PH's unique value proposition is embedded in its business operations. Since the company is a trash-to-reward application, Trash Cash PH influences its community partners to collect and segregate plastic materials that contribute to the circular economy by delivering collected plastic materials to upcycling partners. As such, Trash Cash PH has collected thousands of kilograms of plastic materials over their business operations, lessening improper plastic waste disposal in landfills and the ocean.
Some of their success stories can be found along coastlines in the Philippines that help local fishermen decrease plastic waste improperly thrown into the ocean. The company teaches its users to become responsible consumers and to integrate the habit of proper waste management into their daily lives.
SDG# 3: Good Health and Well-Being
Trash Cash PH's rewards promote its users' good health and well-being by offering necessities and valuable eco-friendly items. Like what was offered in remote Samal island, the company places food like rice and other crops as a form of reward, while in the urbanized areas, it places vouchers to get discounts on purchasing eco-friendly products from partner eco-merchants. The company provides an alternative form of livelihood for family members that stay at home to have the chance to earn food and other valuable materials for their household.
SDG# 4: Quality Education
There is also an educational aspect of the Trash Cash PH application that Engr. Vidal further explains, "Trash Cash (PH) app is not only for the points or the incentives but the feedback that we receive from our community partners is that they also learn how to manage their waste since we also have a learning module in the app."
Overall, the company encompasses multiple United Nations Sustainable Development Goals that provide alternative forms of livelihood for their community partners. It also helps to lessen the plastic waste in landfills and oceans through proper household waste management and empowers a circular economy involving eco-merchants and upcycling companies.
"Our mission is to promote behavioral change." - Engr. Benjoe Vidal
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Trash Cash PH aims to reduce plastic pollution from the environment through its innovative and revolutionary technology-based solution. It is a software application company that incentivizes people to collect and clean up plastic materials. Designated drop-off stations among partner communities and establishments are available for depositing the collected plastic materials. Afterward, the company rewards its users with points that are used to claim vouchers for eco-friendly products from partner eco-merchants and necessities like rice, among others. Their mobile application provides other functions that include real-time tracking of recycled plastic materials by users, educational modules that teach users about proper plastic handling, and identifying plastic materials from their metric of 1-7 through a user’s camera.
