MIT Student Refines Recycling App in Ghana

Why this is here: Dagadu secured funding and mentorship through two PKG Fellowships and was one of the few first-year students accepted into the IDEAS incubator—typically filled with MBA and graduate students.

Akorfa Dagadu, an MIT student from Ghana, initially designed a mobile app—Ishara—to improve recycling in Accra. She quickly learned that existing informal waste picker networks were already functional, though undervalued. Dagadu then pivoted, receiving support from MIT’s PKG Center for Social Impact and its IDEAS Social Innovation Incubator.

She refined Ishara to connect these networks with the broader recycling value chain, using blockchain technology for transparent and fair buyback programs. Dagadu’s work now combines chemical engineering—studying enzyme stabilization for plastic degradation—with community-engaged research, collaborating with the Nigerian company Chanja Datti on multilayer plastic waste.

The project faced challenges as Dagadu’s co-founders left, but she found support through MIT’s entrepreneurial communities. Next year, she will study at Tsinghua University in Beijing, expanding her research to larger-scale material flows and policy. The team still seeks solutions for effectively processing complex plastic waste.