Digital Mobilizer App: An App to Introduce Basic Environmental Education and Motivate Population Engagement in Sustainable Development through Personas Created by Waste Pickers

This paper presents the conception phase of the Digital Mobilizer App (DMA), an Information Module component of the Egalitarian project EcoLink project, part of the ERASMUS+ program funded by the EU. DMA aims to develop a mobile application to introduce basic environmental education and encourage engagement in sustainable development. The app features AI-generated personas created by waste pickers to represent themselves and their children, fostering inclusion and representation in educational initiatives. The paper consolidates the workshop results conducted during the Waste Summit Brasília 2025, involving ten CENTCOOP waste pickers, an entity representing over a dozen of waste picker cooperatives. The workshop, conducted by AAU, Saxion, and UnB students, supervised by UnB professors, utilized an AI-powered program from Educado, another Egalitarian project, to create personas based on participants' inputs. Waste pickers identified contamination as their main problem, alongside with hospital waste, low-quality recyclables, organic matter, and even animal corpses. They also highlighted the need for systemic improvements, including fines, external education, and awareness campaigns. The waste pickers suggested AI-generated child personas as influencers. The findings underscore strong participant engagement, with waste pickers expressing satisfaction with the personas, linking them to real individuals in their cooperatives. The study highlights the potential of AI-driven participatory design to empower marginalized communities, enhance their visibility, and support advocacy efforts. UnB's professors and students presented the results to another cooperative, which demonstrated strong interest in future workshops. The major reference for DMA during 2025 is the P3RD Model (P-Prevention, R₁-Reduction, R₂-Reuse, R₃-Recycling, D-Disposal), adaptation of the 10R Dutch Circular Economy Model. Within the scope of cooperatives of waste pickers, DMA will focus on Selective Collection, Triage/Sorting, Transformation, and Commercialization (C₁T₁T₂C₂), aligned with Reuse (R₂-Reuse) and Recycling (R₃-Recycling) components of the P3RD model.