Idea 415 of 500. Cluster 21: Energy, water and waste at small scale
Waste-collection and recycling businesses in the tourist towns, paid by the businesses they serve
The mechanism, from the book
The sun shines on every roof and the island imports its fuel.
Every idea in cluster 21 uses this mechanism.
A first step
Walk the main street of one tourist town and ask every guesthouse, café and shop owner how their rubbish is collected now, how often it is missed and what they pay. Offer a weekly collection at a fixed monthly fee, with recyclables sorted out, starting with the first 10 who agree. The proof is 10 signed monthly orders on one route, enough to pay for a driver and a cart.
- Who pays first
- A guesthouse owner whose reviews mention rubbish on the lane, who pays because a clean street is part of what the guest bought.
- What leaves today
- Litter costs a town the premium its visitors would pay, and unsorted waste throws away materials that could be sold; a paid collection captures both.
The idea and the mechanism are from the book. The first step was written for this site as a suggestion; if you know a better one, say so.
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
The only test any idea on this site has to pass. The four rules that go with it are here.
In the book
- Ch. FourteenThe List
Energy: first, stop importing it
More from cluster 21
- 411Rooftop solar leasing for households, paid from the electricity bill
- 412Solar-powered cold rooms for the fishing harbours and the farms
- 413Biogas plants for the dairy and pig farms, with the gas sold locally
- 414Rainwater-harvesting installation for the dry-zone villages and the hotels
- 416Composting of hotel and market waste into a branded soil product
- 417Plastic-recycling units making building products from the beach and river waste
Idea 415 of the 500 in the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? Every one can be started by one person, one family or one small firm.