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Project
Benko

What We Do

Benko builds systems that turn waste into profit.

We go into cities where waste collection is broken or missing and build the system from the ground up. Collectors, recyclers, and city governments, connected so the waste pays for itself.

Not one-off cleanups. The system that makes the change last.

The model, in four phases

Each phase pays for the next. We start with one ward and grow until waste funds itself.

Phase 01

Pilot

Waste stops being an environmental liability.

One ward. Sorting goes in, results get documented.

Details
Phase 02

Expand

Waste becomes a managed resource.

Replicate ward by ward. Recyclable revenue starts flowing.

Details
Phase 03

Self-Fund

Waste becomes a revenue stream.

Fees and materials cover the running cost. The system pays for itself.

Details
Phase 04

Energy

Waste becomes energy.

A proven record makes waste-to-energy fundable. Earned, never promised.

Details
Benko overview - Who We Are Benko overview - Why Should We Benko overview - Insights Benko overview - Outlook & Vision

Why the model
holds up.

The energy case

Waste is a fuel, not a liability.

In cities like Singapore and across the Tokyo Bay area, waste is not buried. It is burned cleanly inside the city to make power and heat. Volume drops around 90 percent, the ash is reused, and emissions stay tightly controlled.

The point: treated as fuel, waste stops being a cost and becomes revenue the city owns.

Phase 4, the end goal: connect sustainable collection to clean industrial-scale incineration. The plan is to partner with companies that already run this, the kind of waste-to-energy proven across Singapore and the Tokyo Bay area, joining the collection we build to the energy recovery they operate, and turning the trash problem into profit.

Waste
Clean burn
Power + heat
 LandfillEnergy recovery
LandConsumed permanentlyFootprint stays small
EmissionsMethane releasedControlled flue gas
EconomicsOngoing cost, zero returnPower and heat sold
The behavior case

People sort when the system earns it.

Getting people to sort is not about posters. The evidence points one way.

System first

People cannot sort into a service that does not exist.

Burning is rational

People burn when nothing reliable reaches them. Fix that and the reason goes.

Pay, don't preach

Sorting rises when it pays or saves effort, not when it is encouraged.

Easy by default

Two marked bins at the door beat any campaign.

Use local trust

Existing collectors carry new habits further than outside rules.

Our Projects

Running Planned
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Fiji Tanzania W. Sahara Canada United States of America Kazakhstan Uzbekistan Papua New Guinea Indonesia Argentina Chile Dem. Rep. Congo Somalia Kenya Sudan Chad Haiti Dominican Rep. Russia Bahamas Falkland Is. Norway Greenland Fr. S. Antarctic Lands Timor-Leste South Africa Lesotho Mexico Uruguay Brazil Bolivia Peru Colombia Panama Costa Rica Nicaragua Honduras El Salvador Guatemala Belize Venezuela Guyana Suriname France Ecuador Puerto Rico Jamaica Cuba Zimbabwe Botswana Namibia Senegal Mali Mauritania Benin Niger Nigeria Cameroon Togo Ghana Côte d'Ivoire Guinea Guinea-Bissau Liberia Sierra Leone Burkina Faso Central African Rep. Congo Gabon Eq. Guinea Zambia Malawi Mozambique eSwatini Angola Burundi Israel Lebanon Madagascar Palestine Gambia Tunisia Algeria Jordan United Arab Emirates Qatar Kuwait Iraq Oman Vanuatu Cambodia Thailand Laos Myanmar Vietnam North Korea South Korea Mongolia India Bangladesh Bhutan Nepal Pakistan Afghanistan Tajikistan Kyrgyzstan Turkmenistan Iran Syria Armenia Sweden Belarus Ukraine Poland Austria Hungary Moldova Romania Lithuania Latvia Estonia Germany Bulgaria Greece Turkey Albania Croatia Switzerland Luxembourg Belgium Netherlands Portugal Spain Ireland New Caledonia Solomon Is. New Zealand Australia Sri Lanka China Taiwan Italy Denmark United Kingdom Iceland Azerbaijan Georgia Philippines Malaysia Brunei Slovenia Finland Slovakia Czechia Eritrea Japan Paraguay Yemen Saudi Arabia Antarctica N. Cyprus Cyprus Morocco Egypt Libya Ethiopia Djibouti Somaliland Uganda Rwanda Bosnia and Herz. Macedonia Serbia Montenegro Kosovo Trinidad and Tobago S. Sudan

Running Projects

Dhulikhel, Nepal
Phase 1, begins August 2026

The first designated Healthy City of the WHO in Nepal. 32,000 residents, with six of twelve wards on zero collection service. Benko's first municipal contract. The pilot ward launches August 2026: two weeks, one ward, full documentation, payment on delivery.

12 wards total
6 with zero collection
58% organic fraction
~€9,000-14,000 (NPR 1.2M-1.86M) recyclable revenue, projected by Phase 3
Berlin, Germany
In setup, 2026

Early-stage coordination in Berlin. Benko is mapping the infrastructure, identifying the right municipal contacts, and scoping an adapted version of the model for a European urban context. More detail as the engagement develops.

Urban context
Model adaptation underway

Planned Projects

Every region gets its own approach, the context differs everywhere, so the model is adapted, never copy-pasted. The common thread is building a network of cleanups and university presentations first, then making the case for a system suited to that place.

East Asia China · Hong Kong · Japan

Educational outreach across schools and universities is already running in China and Hong Kong. Japan, where clean waste-to-energy runs at industrial scale, is the reference for the Phase 4 end goal.

Europe Berlin, Germany

Benko's European foothold. Early coordination in Berlin is scoping the model for a high-income city, where the focus shifts toward recovery rates and the energy value of residual waste.

Southeast Asia Philippines · Cambodia

Cleanup footage is already filmed in the Philippines. Municipal contexts here resemble Dhulikhel closely, so the documented Nepal model transfers with the least adaptation.

Latin America Peru · Brazil

Priority markets on waste volume and the strong informal collector networks the model formalizes rather than replaces. Early university and partner outreach is underway.

Oceania Australia

Cleanup footage already filmed on the ground. A high-income variant, where the focus shifts toward recovery rates and the energy value of residual waste.

East Africa Uganda

Network building is underway. An organic-heavy waste profile makes composting and biogas the strongest early fit for the local system.

We need two sides
to build the system.

Municipalities and city governments

You have a waste problem. We build the system that solves it and generates revenue from it. Phase 1 costs less than one week of your current truck budget.

Scrap dealers, recyclers, and processors

You need volume and consistency. We formalize collection routes and connect you to segregated, sorted material. Direct incentives, no middleman markup.

NGOs and cleanup organizations

You are on the ground. We can sponsor cleanups, document the output, and fold your work into a larger system that creates permanent change instead of one-off events.

Leonard Schönhöffer

Leonard Schönhöffer

Founder

Throughout my travels, I noticed gorgeous places drowning in trash. And elsewhere, that same trash sorted, processed, turned into fuel or revenue. The difference is never the people. It is always the system.

Someone working sixty hours a week to keep their family going does not have the bandwidth to sort recyclables. That is not apathy. That is what happens when infrastructure was never built for you. The problem got shipped downstream and rebranded as personal responsibility.

The solutions exist. They just exist somewhere else. Benko takes what works, adapts it, and builds it where it is actually needed. Not as charity. As infrastructure. Because when waste has value, and the system is designed right, everyone in it benefits.

Simple Action. Real Results. Direct Incentives.

Let's talk.

info@projectbenko.com

Whether you are a municipality, a recycler, an NGO, or someone who wants to be part of this, reach out.