Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection

Waste pickers are the victims of harsh economic and social factors that have hurt many developing countries and billions of people around the world. Due to the rise of industrialization since the 19th century, waste and disposable resources have been discarded around the world to provide more resources, products, and services to wealthy countries. This has put developing countries in a precarious position where people have had very few economic opportunities besides taking on the role of waste pickers, who not only face physical health consequences due to the work they do but also face exclusion from society due to the negative views of waste pickers. Many people view waste pickers as scavengers and people who survive off of doing dirty work, which creates tensions between waste pickers and others in society. This even leads to many countries outlawing waste picking and has led to the brutal treatment of waste pickers throughout the world and has even led to thousands of waste pickers being killed by anti-waste picker groups and law enforcement organizations in many countries. <br/> Waste pickers are often at the bottom of supply-chains as they take resources that have been used and discarded, and provide them to recyclers, waste management organizations, and others who are able to turn these resources into usable materials again. Waste pickers do not have many opportunities to rise above the situation they are in as waste picking has become the only option for many people who need to provide for themselves and their families. They are not compensated very well for the work they do, which also contributes to the situation where waste pickers are forced into a position of severe health risks, backlash from society and governments, not being able to seek better opportunities due to a lack of earning potential, and not being connected with end-users. Now is the time to create new business models that solve these large problems in our global society and create a sustainable way to ensure that waste pickers are treated properly around the world.

We are the “Amazon Storage” for food delivery services. Customers will be able to order take-out on established food delivery apps, such as UberEats and Grubhub. At delivery, the drivers will place your order inside our HotBox lockers. Customers will then receive a unique code to input in order to access the locker. Lockers will be temperature controlled to keep the food hot or cold depending on what the customer orders. Our product aims to provide a contact-less pickup option for customers. We will design our own proprietary storage lockers that will serve as our primary product offering. Our company would look at all aspects of designing the lockers, permits for placing around apartment complexes, and costs associated with building the lockers.

My thesis was conducted in two parts, one with the creative aspect, which was competing in Venture Devils competition with my NGO pitch-deck. The second aspect was a written portion to explain the research I have done through my creative project, and competing in Venture Devils. I began this project in my ENT 360 class in 2020, with Professor Sebold, so I began gathering research then. I worked with Hope Women's Center, a local non-profit, to understand what needs underprivileged women have and how my venture can support those needs. I came up with a venture pitch that provides peer mentoring, networking, and financial literacy to women.