Mobile app for waste management on cards
UNB
A Bangladeshi youth has come up with an innovative idea to ensure sustainable waste management the lack of which remains a major health and environmental concern in urban areas of the developing countries, including Bangladesh, reports UNB.
Shougat Nazbin Khan, now playing a role as Young Leader for Sustainable Development Goals at the United Nations, will develop a mobile application for sustainable waste management. Its simple but a sustainable solution to poor waste management system, she told UNB expressing her high hope to go a long way with the idea.
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has already announced 30 regional finalists, including Bangladeshi youth Nazbin, for the inaugural Young Champions of the Earth prize and invited all to rate the finalists ideas to save the environment.
A global jury will select six Young Champions to each receive $15,000 in funding and technical support to bring their ideas to life.
Nazbin is among the five finalists in the Asia Pacific Region who are termed by the UNEP as brilliant young change-makers with big ideas.
I feel blessed to get selected as a regional finalist. I seek votes from all Bangladeshis and well-wishers across the world, she said adding that she is the only finalist among all who is not an environmentalist.
It is a global competition aiming to identify, support and celebrate outstanding individuals between the ages of 18 and 30 with big ideas to protect or restore the environment.
Nazbin, who calls herself a community leader, clean energy technologist and a SDGs advocate, said, Everyone will be benefited once it is developed.
She said for the very first time, sustainable waste management system will be implemented with the help of mobile application namely ENVLee (to be developed).
Smartphone users will be able to open account on it with their personal details which could be only accessed by the user and app administrator, said Nazbin who is also doing research on clean energy production, sustainable energy system development and management.
The app will allow the user to input the number of waste (in case of organic) or kilograms of processed organic waste (fertilizer). Accordingly, they will be rewarded with points/stars.
As soon as the points/stars reach sufficient level, the user will be contacted for waste collection, Nazbin said.
Project ENVLee team will collect the waste from the users house and the team will take that to recycle companies or fertilizer distributing companies depending on the kind of waste collected. She said these companies will pay according to the weight and a percentage of the money will be sent to the user through an online or mobile payment system.
Ive been working tirelessly to empower the rural communities of Bangladesh with quality education and skill training, Nazbin said hoping that she will be able to make a difference this time, too. The winners will be notified by September and invited to attend the Champions of the Earth Gala Dinner in Nairobi on December 5. The winners will be expected to implement their big ideas and provide progress updates in the form of videos and blogs that will be shared on the Young Champions website.
The future of our planet depends on our ability to innovate. And when it comes to environmental solutions, were only at the beginning of what Im convinced will be a major economic revolution, said Head of UN Environment Erik Solheim.
These regional finalists are examples of the passion, drive and creativity that will underpin the coming change. These young innovators need to be empowered so that they can fulfill their potential and shape the future.
Patrick Thomas, CEO of Covestro, a world-leading materials science company which sponsors the Young Champions of the Earth said, Im confident that many of these wonderful ideas will become reality and go a long way in making the world a brighter place not just for us, but for many generations to come.
