Celebrating International Youth Day: Q&A with Youth-Led Social Enterprise ReFuse

Youth are increasingly at the frontlines of educating, advocating, and advancing climate awareness and solutions. Through the USAID GISR MENA Task Order, seven youth-led and youth-serving grantees implemented local climate mitigation and adaptation initiatives under the MENA Youth for Climate Action (MYCA) activity. In one year, grantees achieved great results.

Launched in late November 2023, the USAID Scaling MYCA Activity aims to further increase communities’ resilience to climate change and environmental impacts by supporting MYCA grantee activities that have the potential to scale, and in parallel, increase youth leadership and capacity to implement these interventions at scale.

To commemorate International Youth Day, we caught up with ReFuse, a 100% youth-led and owned social enterprise start-up dedicated to tackling the global waste problem. ReFuse is one of the four Scaling MYCA grantees, and they envision a zero-waste society that channels resources to empower communities. Read on to learn more about what they’ve learned, where they see themselves in the future, how they’re using technology to drive change, and how the international community can continue to support young people and organizations like theirs. 

How has ReFuse’s participation in USAID’s GISR MYCA activity and the successive Scaling MYCA activity impacted you/the organization? What have you learned? What have you been the most surprised by?

ReFuse’s journey started in late 2021 when four founders transformed an abandoned bakery in a dense, diverse neighborhood on the outskirts of Beirut into a recyclables collection point. We sought to fight waste and empower and reward people committed to environmental efforts. In 2022, we expanded and opened a much larger sorting center in Bourj Hammoud. With the support of the GISR MYCA activity, we continued our growth in 2023, launching a new facility in the heart of Beirut’s peninsula, Hamra. USAID’s support also helped us to diversify our business model by developing business-to-business (B2B) services.

Over the last two years, we met ministries and public authorities to advocate for integrated solid waste management (ISWM) services, published investigations on the exploitation of waste pickers, and spread behavioral change on resources management through environmental restoration actions, awareness initiatives, and by marketing ReFuse’s mission. We got closer to financial viability by reinforcing our business model, reaching new markets, and generating profits to be reinvested in community impact and environmental action. Businesses were reaching out for support, and NGOs started to engage in conversations to build long-term partnerships.

And then, we found ourselves back at “square one”. Lebanon’s instability due to ongoing conflict in the region left us teetering on the edge of liquidity shortages and facing restricted markets, increasing costs, and reduced market opportunities. We urgently needed resources and viable ideas to keep the start-up alive, and we needed to rapidly reinvent the business model.

We were surprised to learn that while the market was vacillating around us, we knew exactly what to do. With the support of the GISR MYCA activity, we developed a financial plan, mastered stakeholder mapping and partnership development, and spent countless hours on short-term action plans and long-term strategic planning. We used that knowledge to build something even bigger that aligns with our vision: a consultancy dedicated to ISWM.

Through Scaling MYCA, we are building our track record as waste management experts and implementing our initial services for a diverse range of customers, including public actors, private service providers, and civil society organizations. By demonstrating our experience, we will increase opportunities to acquire new customers and build long-term collaborations. USAID is supporting and fueling our diversification and growth, multiplying the positive externalities we can generate. Acquiring skills to be adaptive for change and to support decision-making has been crucial. When projects put such focus on the growth of youth-led ventures, they don’t only shape organizations. They are creating functional, constructive leadership, which then pays back in the years to come.

What is your ultimate vision for ReFuse? Where do you see yourself in the next three, five, or ten years? How has/can Scaling MYCA support ReFuse to achieve this vision?

ReFuse is scaling up its work to build a venture capable of mitigating social and environmental hazards caused by waste mismanagement. Globally, less than 20% of waste is recycled. While some waste ends up in landfills or incinerators, most of it is simply lost in nature with a direct impact on the most vulnerable and underserved communities. Around 2 billion people worldwide lack access to adequate waste management services, with most of them in low-income urban areas.

The waste problem is a vast, global issue we can’t fully solve. However, we can unlock the power of innovation to generate development opportunities in diverse communities worldwide, share knowledge, and foster local adoption of solutions.

Informed by MSI’s Scaling Up Framework, Scaling MYCA supported ReFuse in developing a scaling vision and strategy: By 2030, ReFuse aims to implement and pilot innovative waste management interventions that will benefit at least 500,000 people worldwide. Our Scaling Plan also outlines our Impact Theory of Change (ToC): If waste is prevented from the source, at the producer and consumer level, if waste management is transparent and public and private service providers are accountable, if economic actors recirculate items and materials, then, social and environmental hazards caused by ineffective waste management can be mitigated.

We can therefore work to mitigate the direct impact on communities caused by the mismanagement of waste, promoting safe handling practices that will protect both ecosystems and inhabitants and particularly benefit those most vulnerable and underserved. Finally, through a Scaling MYCA grant, ReFuse will build a track record of providing technical expertise on ISWM to clients, and establish partnerships aimed at advocacy, project implementation, or service provisioning in ISWM. 

The theme of International Youth Day 2024 is “From Clicks to Progress: Youth Digital Pathways for Sustainable Development.” Youth are largely recognized as “digital natives”, using technology to drive change and create solutions. Do you agree? How is ReFuse incorporating technology into its operations?

At ReFuse, we’re young, passionate, solid waste management experts, and we’re trying to tackle a huge problem that is much more complex than many realize. According to the World Bank, global municipal waste production is projected to reach 3.40 billion tons by 2050 if effective measures are not implemented. We need to fix this growing problem fast, effectively, and at scale, and technology is the key. Technology is a crucial tool to apply knowledge in a reproducible way, allowing us to reach practical goals at a faster pace.

ReFuse utilizes two vital technological components: operating software and large-scale mechanical equipment like hydraulic balers. ReFuse’s operating software is a web application that allows us to register every recyclables drop-off and immediately assign a reward depending on average market prices. The software is key for redistributing value throughout the supply-demand chain. Every user or family has their personal waste e-wallet where they can monitor their progress. Without the ReFuse App, handling more than 500 transactions a day would be impossible! The app also allows us to survey statistics like the changing patterns of materials collected, customers’ evolving skills, and the impact of our service.

All the recyclables we gather are compacted with hydraulic balers, which can reduce the volume of sorted materials by up to 95%, reducing operating costs and logistics issues. Compressing cardboard is utterly satisfying, and the “crunchy” sound of plastic bottles being turned into a compact block is pure joy. These two technologies are central to our work. Without them, we wouldn’t be able to trade recyclables and minimize transportation costs, which allow us to share a portion of the recyclables’ monetary value with our users.

However, technology isn’t everything. We deeply believe that human connection is just as important. Our recyclables collection points are not dumpsites. They are community spaces where our operators and teams establish personal connections and interact with users, share simple morning greetings, help sort waste, and receive feedback. Improving awareness and instilling behavior change in communities is a daily effort.

We are digital natives used to constant change and eager to explore innovative solutions that incorporate various technological advancements. But we also remain centered on ReFuse’s vision of prioritizing community needs with human-centered interventions. Operations can be digitized to scale more quickly or be more accessible, but we still proudly champion human interaction.

How can international donors such as USAID continue supporting young people as development partners and leaders?

We need your trust. Youth have very limited spaces where trust is provided. We’re often perceived as beneficiaries of interventions, rather than development actors. Universities, accelerators, and incubators are trusting youth by directly engaging with them to shape ideas and knowledge through result-oriented tasks. Projects and entrepreneurial ideas are taken by the hand to adjust their feasibility and transform energy, ideas, and vision into tangible outcomes.

Similarly, USAID trusted ReFuse in its growth phase. Through the GISR MYCA activity, we received technical support and financial resources to directly implement our vision. With that trust and those resources, we expanded our reach with a more structured approach. We engaged with public authorities, directly implemented waste management services, and interacted with communities to build awareness.

Trust can also be reflected in a different way. International donors, such as USAID, can enhance their procurement policies to amplify their environmental and social impact and expand the reach of their work through responsible budget spending. Greening and improving the social standards of procurement policies that prioritize responsible businesses can directly fuel the market of environmental social enterprises like ours, and like many other youth-led entities we work with. Redirecting procurement standards can transform beneficiaries into partners, and partners into professional colleagues or contractors. Improving restrictions - or guidelines - for all recipients of financial support would multiply this intention.

As waste lovers, we’ll share a few examples: what if 0.5% of all financial resources mobilized had to be dedicated to the responsible disposal of assets and any item purchased? What if local procurement had to prioritize recycled, reusable items, and focus on accessing and provisioning services instead of purchasing goods that often end up as waste? This would directly fuel our market, and trust would reach a completely different level.

To learn more about ReFuse’s work, visit their website. Stay tuned for updates on how ReFuse and the other three Scaling MYCA grantees are implementing and expanding their climate change solutions.

Responses to the questions in this Q&A represent the views of ReFuse and do not necessarily represent the views of MSI, Tetra Tech, or USAID.