COMSOL Cooperative for Environmental Solutions

Supporting social inclusion through recycling
2015 SEED Africa Award; Government of Flanders
Waste Management
Maputo
Mozambique

The cooperative, composed of eight former waste pickers, collects and buys recyclable materials in Maputo. Waste pickers and residents assist in the collection process by dropping recyclables off at collection points, where they are picked up by the enterprise’s truck. Other cooperative members, having received proper training, sort and clean the recyclables to sell them to companies in the city.

The recyclables collected include plastic, aluminium and glass. Ninety per cent of the profits generated are shared among its members, while ten per cent is reinvested in the cooperative.

COMSOL Cooperative for Environmental Solutions is ensuring social protection and inclusion for underprivileged inhabitants of Maputo and their families. Waste pickers are offered the opportunity to increase their monthly income, and community members are stimulated to actively take part in their neighbourhood’s development.

Eco-Inclusive Impacts
COMSOL Cooperative for Environmental Solutions is ensuring social protection, better income and inclusion for underprivileged inhabitants of Maputo and their families.
  • Increasing monthly income and improving working conditions for cooperative members.
  • Ensuring social protection and inclusion for vulnerable people and their families.
  • Increasing citizen participation in community development.
  • Aiming to facilitate recycling and reusing of at least 0,5% of Maputo’s waste in the long run.
  • Stimulating better resource usage and recycling through its program and awareness campaigns across Maputo’s urban communities.

  • Supporting the growth of the under-developed waste-recycling sector in Mozambique.

 

 

Partners

COMSOL Cooperative for Environmental Solutions empowers waste pickers in Maputo. The collection, recycling and sales of solid waste material not only ensures an income for the pickers and cooperative members - former waste pickers - but also reduces waste accumulation in the city. The enterprise is also raising awareness among the population on the potential and importance of recycling and resource conservation.

COMSOL Cooperative for Environmental Solutions implements the enterprise’s activities. It collects, sorts, cleans and resells recyclables to companies in Maputo.

Lay Volunteer International Association (LVIA) offers technical and management support, seeks new partnerships, mediates negotiations and monitors existing contracts.

Mozambican Association for the Promotion of Modern Cooperatives (AMPCM) promotes the cooperative model and supports the cooperative’s development.