SmartApaga LLC (previously ApagaCommunity CJSC) is a private waste management service used by over 1000 households and organizations in Yerevan who feel responsibility for their recyclable waste and on top of wanting to be 100% sure that it actually gets recycled, also prefer paying for the convenience of someone picking it up at their door.

Originally founded by two UWC Dilijan students and a Canadian Armenian repatriate, SmartApagas now has evolved into a tech startup with a solid team of developers lead by seasoned developer Arshak Ghazaryan and his team for iOS & Android devs as well as a team of designers, WEB designers, and business professionals. Everyone wholeheartedly believes in our mission and most take no direct income from this social venture.

As an LLC, SmartApaga LLC is expected to be a for profit enterprise, but the reality is very different, as only operational costs are covered, and the whole mission is to create a smart recycling logistics infrastructure in Yerevan and the rest of Armenia using a combination of optimized logistics, address clustering, smart IoT recycling containers, and Uber-like collections. Profits are possible only when this technology is exported to other countries, which will happen in a not too far distant future.

Why is it a paid service?

Lots of people think that in countries where recycling is mandatory, that it is done for free, or even that one can be paid to recycle. This is simply not true. Recycling has one of three ways of being funded. Municipal or income taxes, fines, and/or a deposit system (the bottle collecting machine that refunds your deposit when purchasing your bottled drink). Neither of these yet applies to Armenia. Combined with the very low value of the waste (80-100 AMD per Kg of plastic, 15-35 AMD per Kg of paper and 5-15 AMD per Kg of glass) there cannot be a viable home pickup service that is profitable or even capable of covering operational costs without service fees. This is the reality of the situation. Therefore we must charge a nominal fee to make this whole thing even possible.

What makes our approach unique is getting local businesses to become rewards partners and help us offer unique discounts, freebies and other rewards to our users through a points system where our subscribers collect ApagaCoins to be used as digital currency to purchase such rewards and potentially recover their yearly fees in part or in whole while making their regular purchases.

By joining our community, you are not only able to finally, easily recycle your waste, but also know that you are part of a new, global revolution: a #GreenRevolution!

Join us and become a SmartApaga Green Hero today!