The Social TV foundation has developed a recycling game called PickItUp in the hopes that it will have an impact on the environmental crisis facing South Africa.
Waste management has become a major environmental issue in South Africa. According to UNEP Report (2020), South Africa is estimated to generate a total of 12.7 million tonnes of waste domestically per annum. Every municipality is facing increasing pressure to provide waste management services due to the enormous amount of waste generated by our generation.
It is against this background that Social TV Foundation has developed PickItUp, a recycling game that seeks to create positive habits and perceptions on how we deal with waste. PickItUp focuses on waste management, disposal, recycling, and anti-littering campaigns. The game shares how-to tips and relevant information when it comes to the impact that one conscious act can have on the planet.
An estimated 3 billion hours are currently spent on gaming every week. Games engage consumers and build value around products and services, creating a powerful competitive advantage.
Successful products and services identify and understand our deeply seated natural tendencies and the ways in which they can be used to change our behavior. By leveraging game-like mechanisms to satisfy these needs and tendencies, we can create behavioral change across a broad spectrum of pressing issues, from healthcare and finances to philanthropy and conservation.
According to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 11: “Waste collection and management are essential public services for every community and are necessary for the protection of public health and the environment”.
Therefore, inspiring positive behavioral change is a key driver of customer engagement, brand loyalty, and sustained market growth, hence PickItUp comes in as one of the many ways to inspire change in waste management and treatment.
The Social TV Foundation is a brainchild of Social TV (www.social-tv.co.za) an online multimedia news channel covering CSI/CSR and Shared Value initiatives. The Social TV Foundation realizes the power of technology and media to facilitate unique interventions that speak to how audiences consume and engage with technology today.
PickitUp is available on Google, Apple, Android, and Amazon. The architecture and software are 100% developed in South Africa. The mobile technology is stable, secure, and scalable to millions of views.
The game player can be branded & customized for the municipalities, organization, companies to have any number of active channels to content which is relevant to the aims and goals of the user.
The aim was to create a fun game for kids, adults, and gamers to play while they learn interesting facts about recycling and the organizations that are leading the fight for a cleaner planet.
