Agora Tech Lab
Start-up
Waste management
Create value from waste
Enable openness and participation
The World Bank predicts that by 2025, global urban waste will increase by 70%. Without solid waste management, we cannot build sustainable and livable cities. Therefore, it is important that cities, especially in the developing world, create smart and efficient waste management methods.
Agora Tech Lab (ATL) aims to help cities create participatory waste management frameworks. By using cutting-edge blockchain technology, urban dwellers can easily be compensated for their contribution to society in exchange for a local token that can be traded for governmental services. With the advent of blockchain technology, the global community has the unique opportunity to create smart systems that help cities deal with population and waste growth. By letting local citizens take control over their own community and rewarding them for it, cities will become smarter and better places to live.
Value proposition: Agora Tech Lab aims to create circular urban economies that are more self reliant. Doing so, earth’s resources can be used more efficiently, securing the wellbeing of future generations. Agora Tech Lab offers local governments the tools to separate waste more efficiently by rewarding citizens for recycling with a local digital currency that they can exchange for municipal services or benefits (such as free public transport, less tax). Waste can be better separated, and municipalities spend less money on waste processing. By allowing people to participate in the processing of waste streams, an important step can be taken towards the creation of a circular economy; Agora Tech Lab offers the technology and insights to achieve this
Value creation and delivery: By rewarding citizens for recycling, waste collection becomes a community effort. The tokens received can be used for personal use to be exchanged for governmental services. But tokens can also be pooled together so communities can save for new neighborhood services. This, for instance, happened in the city of Enschede, where citizens performed voluntary work in exchange for a community center.
Value capture: During recycling, the focus is usually on waste treatment. However, Agora Tech Lab goes a step further: with the implementation of ATL’s smart incentive system, a change in behavior of the citizen is encouraged. Agora Tech Lab changes the relationship between citizen and waste. Agora Tech Lab is the first organization to exploit the potential of blockchain to contribute to the creation of a circular economy in the urban environment.