Green Future Charts a New Direction in Recycling Services through the Sands Cares Accelerator

As its second year in the Sands Cares Accelerator came to a close in 2023, Green Future Macao is continuing to forge new directions in Macao recycling services, leveraging the funding and resources it receives from the three-year nonprofit capacity-building program.

Founded in 2012 to provide education and awareness programs to improve commercial recycling rates in the region, Green Future has focused its time in the Sands Cares Accelerator on launching Sap Fong, an environmental social enterprise that provides Macao businesses with waste sorting and recycling services. Sap Fong aims to increase recycling rates in Macao and provide resources to local residents who independently gather and recycle cardboard as their main source of income.

At the outset of its Sands Cares Accelerator membership, Green Future leaders originally envisioned Sap Fong to be route-based and established two main service paths in which independent recycling workers gathered Macao’s discarded cardboard to be sorted for recycling processes.

After pursuing this structure for a year, Green Future shifted to a subscriber-based approach to accelerate recycling rates. Just a few months after launching the subscription service, Sap Fong has already secured nearly 30 commercial, household and NGO clients for its subscriber service and recycled nearly 90,000 kilograms of cardboard waste in the last three months of 2023 alone.

“By shifting to a subscription model, we want to make recycling seamless and accessible for everyone and empower them to become environmental advocates,” Joey Choi, vice chairman of Green Future, said. “Alongside doorstep recycling, we have recently expanded our services to include eco-product purchase and delivery options, making it easier for individuals to practice environmental sustainability, thus, encouraging more people to participate and contribute to a greener future.”

As Green Future works through its final year in the Sands Cares Accelerator in 2024, the nongovernmental organization is focusing on increasing Sap Fong’s profitability to enable long-term sustainability and aims to increase its client base by 50%.

In addition, support from the Sands Cares Accelerator has allowed Green Future to develop and launch three new offerings for independent workers who gather recyclable materials and work with service providers such as Sap Fong for recycling. Green Future has introduced a trolley exchange program that eliminates the need to queue and wait for cardboard unloading once independent workers’ trolleys are full, a temporary collection point to store collected cardboard at night and opportunities for income diversification by providing client referrals.

Green Future is complementing these services for independent workers with educational tours aimed at raising awareness of the challenges workers face and the importance of sustainable waste management practices, in collaboration with Oxfam. These tours have played a crucial role in promoting social inclusion for independent workers and provided job opportunities with corporations interested in recycling services.

Green Future now regularly interacts with more than 50 independent workers and partners with many of them to fulfill recycling services for its clients. The organization is currently planning six new tours for high school students in 2024.

“As an environmental nonprofit organization with a longstanding focus on environmental education, we have always been passionate about our mission, but we have acknowledged that entrepreneurship, marketing and developing effective revenue-generating strategies have not been our strong suit,” Rix Un, president of Green Future, said. “Through our membership in the Sands Cares Accelerator, we have had the privilege of working with a professional team from Sands that has provided us with constructive suggestions and guidance. Their expertise and support have been invaluable in the positive development of our newly established social enterprise, Sap Fong.”

The Sands Cares Accelerator was inspired by Sands’ founder Sheldon G. Adelson and his legacy of creating successful businesses and giving back to communities through meaningful philanthropic involvement. Since 2017, the program has empowered Las Vegas, Singapore and Macao nonprofits to build their capacity in strategic areas and develop new initiatives to make greater community impact, with funding, structured guidance and mentorship from Sands.

To learn more about the Sands Cares Accelerator and its focus on building nonprofit capacity, visit: https://www.sands.com/responsibility/communities/sands-cares-accelerator/