Build the Business Case for a Plastic Collection Cooperative in Lagos Mainland

Lagos generates an estimated 13,000 tonnes of solid waste per day, and informal waste pickers, known locally as 'baban bola', collect a significant share of it with almost no formal support. They sell to aggregators at suppressed prices, have no collective bargaining power, and are excluded from the formal recycling value chain that increasingly attracts ESG-linked corporate buyers. Several neighbourhoods on Lagos Mainland, including Yaba, Surulere, and Mushin, have dense residential populations, active market activity, and enough plastic waste volume to sustain a cooperative model. Some FMCG companies, including Nestlé and Unilever Nigeria, have extended producer responsibility commitments that require them to source verified recycled material. This is a potential offtake relationship that cooperatives have not yet been structured to exploit. Your task is to build the business case for a five-year worker-owned cooperative in one of these neighbourhoods. Produce a financial model (a structured spreadsheet is fine) showing projected revenue, member earnings, operating costs, and break-even timeline. Pair it with a two-page go-to-market strategy covering how the cooperative recruits members, negotiates with offtakers, and differentiates from existing aggregators. Strong submissions will ground assumptions in real Nigerian data, for example Recyclers Association of Nigeria price benchmarks, Lagos Waste Management Authority policies, and published corporate sustainability reports. The best work will make an honest case for when and why this model is viable, not just a pitch that papers over the hard numbers.