Household waste management has been a major problem in African cities for several years. A Malagasy startup has entered the sector using digital technology to protect the planet.

In Madagascar, like the rest of the world, as the population grows, the volume of waste produced also grows; 50% of garbage in the country still ends up in the streets according to the NGO Ran'Eau. In 2017, the local startup Greentsika launched its household waste collection service using digital tools. Tested and deployed in Tuléar, in the south of Madagascar, the solution is the result of a collaboration with the German NGO Welthungerhilfe, which handles the transportation of waste to landfills.

Greentsika’s service is accessible via mobile phone, email, social networks, or directly at the company's offices. The solution offers various means of payment, including mobile money transfers, bank transfers, checks, and cash. The monthly subscription fee for a household starts at 4,000 ariary ($1), for two to six pickups per week of a 50 kg bag of waste. The fee for businesses (hotels, restaurants, schools, government offices, etc.) starts at 20,000 ariary. The subscriber company chooses the days it wants to have the waste collected and the agent who is dedicated to it.

Subscribers are given a card with a barcode that Greentsika's agents will scan at each garbage pickup. The unique barcodes allow Greentsika to have reliable data on the number of pickups made in a household or business. They also enable the startup to know the coverage of its agents and track their routes in real-time, and identify the customers who have paid their subscription. Rajaofera Gaëtan, one of the four co-founders of Greentsika, said the entire system is cloud-based.

Greentsika, accelerated by Orange Fab Madagascar in 2019, already claims 2,300 customers, 160 garbage pickups per day for 7 tons of waste collected daily. The startup aims to cover the entire city of Tulear and enter other cities, creating more job opportunities. In 2020, Rajaofera Gaëtan estimated that 5 to 6% of households in Tulear were covered.

Adoni Conrad Quenum