Social innovation competition

We are proud that we have organized a competition for best social innovative ideas. On the last public call, in the narrower circle qualified five ideas for which you can learn more below.

Via online voting, the social innovative idea titled GARB won, but no less valuable were the remaining four ideas.

1. GARB

А mobile app will offer a set of services for different target groups (public institution working with waste collection – JP Komunalna Higiena, Private enterprises as Pakomak, Citizens, CSOs) as: mapping places of waste locations, type of waste and condition of the containers, locating illegal dumps and creation of events for waste collection, information of places and time for collection of bulky waste or construction debris, contact of responsible institution and organization working with waste, sharing news from the app on social media and real time data and notification services. The application will take in consideration all privacy and security issues as well as the relevance of the information gathered and published. Crowdsourcing will be used as an innovative model to collect data from users and in same time to showcase how a crowd can contribute in solving societal problems.  In this way, everyone that will use the app can map a location of containers, map full containers or illegal dumps or leave a picture and comments. This will have impact on the environmental awareness among the citizens, as well as on the outlook of а respective city.

2. One Can Make It Work

The goal is not just to create a platform that helps single parents, but through whole program to model a society where solidarity, compassion and the idea of single parents leading a normal life becomes a reality. A creation of an application/website will offer a more stable connection between single parents and companies and potential employers, creating job opportunities and also training opportunities with NGOs and educational institutions, improving their skills. This way single parents will have a greater chance to integrate in the job market. One of the aims is to encourage single parents to offer their services through the website. In this way, a space for all certified single parent to give online courses will be created in fields for which they are specialized and also advertise their products and services. This app/website will also have a space dedicated to babysitting services. Students and also other specialized nannies can offer their services.

3. Make It Matter Macedonia

Make it Matter Macedonia aims to coordinate local resources to create products LOHAS (Lifestyles Organic Health and Sustainable) segment, combining recycled material production from the hands of people with disabilities from the public institution Special Institute Demir Kapija and local unemployed women (designers and craft women) Coordinated by Plenty Practical, products from Make it Matter Macedonia, will be presented and sold on the local market. To fulfill the social mission of Make it Matter Macedonia, Plenty Practical 100% would reinvest its net profit in the continuing implementation of the concept, which will continue with the design and production of uniquely designed products for the LOHAS market segment. This will boost the employment in the region of Demir Kapija, but will also impact on the quantity of textile waste.

4. Recycle and Get Bonus

Main goal of this idea is to collect the used cooking oil from households in order to protect the environment and provide a financial benefit to people who will do it. Machines will be placed in supermarkets in different municipalities. The machine contains a filter, where all that liquid (usually water) that is not a used cooking oil goes into a special waste canister, while the used cooking oil is stored in a separate canister. This action will have direct impact of protecting the environment and social impact on the households. People who will put the used cooking oil in the machine will get 10 Macedonian denars per liter and 5 Macedonian denars per half liter.  The machine can give gifts on a membership cards that can be used in super markets, public transport as tickets, used with gas-stations, ZOOs etc. After collecting, the used cooking oil can be used for bio-diesel production by the big refinery companies.

5. Reuse of Tarpaulin Waste for Bicycle Promotion

The basic idea is to use waste material in the production of designer urban and travel bicycle bags. This means that they will use waste tarpaulin material from advertising boards, as well as other waste tarpaulin into the production of rainproof, designer bicycle bags for carrying goods on bicycles. For this reason а partnership is formed between a designer that has experience in the use of tarpaulin from billboards in the production of clothes and accessories, and an organization that has experience in bicycles and extreme sports. The sale of the bags would be done via already established local shops. The local shops, especially bicycle shops will be their primary target since they already have access to most of targeted buyers. They will also drive sale through designer product shops. Additionally they will also have direct sales with businesses that have need for such bags, such as bicycle couriers, bicycle rental businesses, and travel agencies that offer bicycle tourism. In this sense they would create a solution for two problems: decreasing the waste of tarpaulin by reusing it in the production of bicycle bags and boosting employability.