6. Collect waste reliably to keep customers happy

Against a backdrop of rapid urbanization, expected to see the number of people living in informal settlements double to two billion by 2030, it’s unlikely that we will reach the SDG of achieving access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all without a viable, high-quality alternative to piped sanitation. Uniquely suited to the challenges of densely populated areas that lack access to sewers and other on-site sanitation systems, container based sanitation (CBS) has the potential to be just such an alternative — provided it can be demonstrated as financially viable and capable of being replicated to a scale deserving of recognition as an improved sanitation facility. The CBS model is built around provision of stand-alone toilets, which store waste in sealable, removable cartridges. Those cartridges are safely removed, without exposing residents or workers to the waste, and taken to a treatment or resource recovery center for processing and cleaning.

Project Stage

Scaling

Last update: October 05, 2023

Overview Contributors

Challenge

the challenge of demonstrating financial viability and replicability at scale

Description

Since early 2016 EY’s Enterprise Growth Services have been working with a selection of CBS enterprises in Ghana, Haiti and Peru, leveraging EY’s business modelling expertise, to help them improve their financial sustainability and better position themselves for scale. This involved developing dynamic profitability models and identifying detailed cost and profitability drivers. In doing so, we could develop recommendations for substantial gross margin improvement, test scalability and breakeven scenarios and develop associated action plans. Each enterprise now has a clearer understanding of it profitability drivers, and executable and quantifiable improvement opportunities. It is hoped that EY’s insights shared through the 8 Building Blocks provide WASH stakeholders with a blueprint for taking CBS to the next level, gaining the recognition that it deserves as an improved sanitation option and scaling it as an important contributor to the achievement of SDG targets.

SDGs