Kabaadiwala Connect
A digital platform connecting informal scrap collectors with the formal recycling ecosystem.
- Category
- Social Impact / Product
- Year
- 2026
- Role
- Product Designer / Engineer
- Status
- PROTOTYPE
Kabaadiwala Connect explores how informal scrap collectors can be integrated into a more traceable and structured recycling ecosystem.
The product is designed around the reality that collection, pricing, recycling and traceability currently happen across fragmented informal workflows.
Problem
Informal waste collectors play an important role in the recycling chain, but their work is often disconnected from formal recyclers and lacks reliable digital records.
This creates problems around discovery, pricing, transactions and traceability.
Approach
The product models the recycling workflow around connected entities:
Collectors → Materials → Prices → Transactions → Recyclers → Traceability
The goal is to make transactions and material movement more structured without assuming that the existing informal ecosystem will simply disappear.
Product
The proposed system gives collectors a way to record materials and transactions while allowing recyclers to participate in a more transparent material flow.
The interface direction is deliberately simple and accessible, using a light visual system centred around white and sky blue.
Technical
The product is structured around data models for:
- Materials
- Prices
- Collectors
- Recyclers
- Transactions
- Traceability
The architecture is intended to support a clearer chain of custody from collection through recycling.
Learning
The interesting challenge wasn't building another CRUD application.
It was designing around a real-world ecosystem where the people, processes and incentives already exist outside software.
The product has to fit that ecosystem rather than assuming the ecosystem will reorganise itself because an app exists.