Martin Tumusiime, a 24-year-old graduate of Computer Science has designed and launched a mobile app code-named Yo – Waste to help manage waste in Kampala suburb communities.
The developer told Nile Post that with this app, he intends to connect people and communities to professional garbage collectors at a tap of their smartphone.
“The way this app works is that someone downloads it from Play Store or App Store, signs in with their phone number or email address, then they pick up where they can go ahead to schedule a pickup,” Tumusiime told Nile Post.
“Users schedule their pick up by providing us with their GPS location address and basing on that location the app will automatically search for a registered reliable local waste collector who is in that particular community.”
Getting the idea
Tumusiime said that Yo-Waste was inspired by his own experience after failing to get someone who could collect his waste.
” While living with my auntie in Kazo, a Kampala suburb, there is a time we lived with waste for over 2 weeks, we couldn’t find anywhere to dispose of it yet it was not being picked. I thought about how many people that
were living like this and I thought I could do something,” Tumusiime said.
From the idea generation stage, Tumusiime teamed up with a team of four people and started working on Yo-Waste. Their idea finished second in the MTN App Challenge and won Shs. 5 million, which was their initial capital.
Today, the app is being used by over 25 waste collectors in and around Kampala and over 400 households.
“We have so far collected close to 90 tons of garbage which would have ended in illegal dumping sites,” Tumusiime told this website.
Tumusiime said that he is however set back by low internet penetration and literacy levels among the waste collectors.
Clean and sustainable waste communities are one of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and Tumusiime is addressing this.
