unclogging sewers and drainage systems in nairobi low income estates
This entry has been selected as a finalist in the
Tapping Local Innovation: Unclogging the Water and Sanitation Crisis competition.
unclogging drainage and sewers through recycling of plastic and polythene waste
About You
Location
Project Street Address
Project City
Project Province/State
Project Postal/Zip Code
Project Country
Your idea
Field of Work
Sanitation
Year the initative began (yyyy)
2006
YouTube Upload
Web site (url)
Positioning of your initiative on the mosaic diagram:
Which of these barriers is the primary focus of your work?
Policies distort pricing, lower profits & lead to misuse of water & waste
Which of the principles is the primary focus of your work?
Value-added services mean added business income
If you believe some other barrier or principle should be included in the mosaic, please describe it and how it would affect the positioning of your initiative in the mosaic
This field has not been completed
Name Your Project
unclogging sewers and drainage systems in nairobi low income estates
Describe Your Idea
unclogging drainage and sewers through recycling of plastic and polythene waste
Innovation
What is your signature innovation, your new idea, in one sentence?
unclogging drainage and sewers through recycling of plastic and polythene waste
Describe your innovation. What makes your idea unique and different than others doing work in the field?
Unclogging water sewers and drainages through recycling as an alternative to burying and burning of polyethylene material.
Delivery Model: How do you implement your innovation and apply it to the challenge/problem you are addressing?
Use of plastic / polyethylene raw material in 1990’s had replaced re-usable sisal and fibre traditional baggage. The use of these had resulted to myriad of problems of plastic waste resulting to clogging of water sewers and blockage of drainage systems. In major cities such as Nairobi, the situation had become an environment ‘crisis’ especially resulting to overflows of raw sewage often leading to communicable diseases such as dysentery, cholera, malaria, typhoid amoeba and trachoma among others. In the wake of this crisis the Nairobi city council cleaning department had resulted to burring and burning of polyethylene waste leading to further environment problem eg pollution. All these they did without involving the community. Often this led to transferring a problem from one part of the city to another, most of this ending in drainages and sewage
How do you plan to expand your innovation?
Problem Addressed:
The main problem addressed by polyethylene/plastic menace which caused clog of these sewer and drainage system by recycling the plastic and polyethylene waste. The project also addresses the problem of pollution caused by burying and burning of municipal waste and lack of local community involvement in finding solution to this “Environmental crisis”.
Involvement of the community
Unlike the municipal and local authorities solid waste management through dumping and land fill method in addressing polyethylene / plastic waste menace, this project involves the community groups in collection and turning plastic polyethylene waste into re-usable items such as fencing posts, crockery, roofing tiles and water gutters washing basins among others. The project is mainly entrepreneur also replacing the government policy on slap a ban on use of polyethylene material (bags) of certain microns. To achieve this we have formed a cooperative with over 20 groups representing all eight regions of Nairobi.
Do you have any existing partnerships, and if so, how do you create them?
On this project we are collaborating with local authority, Kenya government Ministries and Departments, Kenya Institute of Manufactures, UNICEF, UNDP French Embassy and COMIC relief group among others. They support through technical assistance on plastic waste recycling. We have already collected over 100 metric tones of the waste for recycling. On the other hand, the project has created direct employment to over 500 Youth and Women member. And helped to raise income for over 5000 Nairobi residents who buy and sell plastic waste and recycled products hence involving the community in municipal waste disposal and management. The project has also benefited members through savings and credit scheme thus improving their status of life and reduction of poverty.
Impact
Provide one sentence describing your impact/intended impact.
a)The project has changed the community attitude towards disposal and management waste by providing alternative to ‘dumping’. Plastic and polyethylene waste recycling has resulted from menace to entrepreneurship. This has created employment opportunity for Youth (un-employed) hence contribute to the government’s effort to reduce un-employment which stands at 53%. In addition plastic Recycling has also contributed to national economy by reducing poverty currently affecting over 60% of the Kenyans as well as reducing incidences of water-borne diseases among others.
What are the main barriers to creating or achieving your impact?
The main constraints to our project have been lack of resources (equipment and materials) to undertake recycling. However with the support of the French Embassy in Nairobi we have been able to acquire basic machinery for waste cleaning, melting and making perrets. The other problems faced is negative public attitude towards waste as well as the recent political unrest which affected collections and transport of the waste.
How many people have you served or plan to serve?
50,000 residents of low income Estates in Nairobi.
Directly
500 cooperative members who benefit from the income raised and dividends from shared profits
Indirectly
1500 members dependant and 50000 residents who benefit from cleaner environment and physical health improvement
Please list any other measures of the impact of your innovation?
The plastic waste recycling strategy adopted replaces the traditional disposal methods of burning and land filling. Our plastic waste cooperative society coordinates the collection and production of re-usable materials. The members have been collecting waste at local level and later sell the same to cooperative thus creating employment for the members. This project if successful will be replicated in other major towns of Kenya such as Mombasa, Nakuru and Kisumu with a view to unclogging blockage of sewers and drainage systems.
Is there a policy intervention element to your innovation, if so please describe?
a)This project is in line with the 2001 solid waster management act which identifies polyethylene menace as the main challenges to environment conservation. The Act had seen the formation of the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) which I represent at local level. NEMA acts as technical advisor and consultants on our plastic waste recycling projec.
Exactly who are the beneficiaries of your innovation?
the main beneficiaries are the community especially the poor who are forgotten by the local authority in solid waste management
This Entry is about (Issues)
Sustainability
How is your initiative financed (or how do you expect your initiative will be financed)?
The main source of funding for this project is donations and grants, membership fees, income from sale of products, training Levy among others. We have received financial support from comic Relief, UNDP – Global Environment facility, practical action, European Union, Micro Enterprise support programme, Clarence foundation and Ministry of Agriculture among others. Apart from financial support the project received technical and material/equipment support from local government and international agencies among others.
Provide information on your finances and organization:
2007 - kes 1,544,000 usd 23044
2006 - 1,250,000 18656
2005 - 1,070,000 15970
What is the potential demand for your innovation?
The high use of polyethylene as form of packaging creates plastic waste menace. In wake of the crisis we are collaborating with the Kenya association of manufactures and the government to work towards alleviating this problem. Recycling has been the most viable option to reduce this National disaster. Training and environment awareness will be carried to replicate this is all municipalities.
What are the main barriers to financial sustainability?
the constraint is shortage of funding to purchase enough recycling equipments and materials
The Story
What is the origin of this innovation? Tell us your story.
I retired as truck driver in 1993 to settle on my rural farm in Nyeri and decided to take farming as an enterprise. The idea was to revolutionize the community thinking that farming is for the poor peasant. To sharpen my skills in farming I attended a farmers training organized by the Kenya Institute of organic farming. The training covered various topics including double digging, composting, natural pesticides and sustainable farming. The skills especially on composting helped to improve my coffee farm production by 25-30% in the first year. This resulted to many farmers wanting to know new fertilizer I was using. The farmers were impressed and the entire village came for my organic fertilizer even selling could not stop them. Its then I remembered thousands of metric tones of rotting waste that I would use for making fertilizer. I saw a business opportunity in waste and so I came back to Nairobi in 1996, meeting the same eyesore dump sites. I mobilized a few neighbours telling them that I had a solution to dumping and request for their cooperation and involvement on this innovation of turning dumping sites to a business enterprise. With 30 of them we formed the City Garbage Recycles Group which was registered in 1996.
In corroboration with the local authority, the provincial administration, local NGOs, we organized community awareness meeting clearing dumping site within a few weeks. We separated the domestic waste in organic and in organic. 75% of the waste was organic which we turned into organic fertilizer and 25% of inorganic waste including plastic tins, polyethylene paper backs, sisal and clothing. While organic waste had been reduced, he inorganic continued to be a major challenge. The City council had in the meantime collected these polyethylene wastes burying them or burning which often led to air pollution.
In 2001 with the support of shelter forum, (NGO) we organized a cooperation among the waste collectors of which I am the chairman. I coordinated the formation of the plastic waste cooperative saving and credit society to coordinate the collection and recycling of plastic waste. The cooperative was formed/registered in 2005, partnering with the National Environment Management Authority, United Nations
Please provide a personal bio. Note this may be used in Changemakers marketing material
1. Name : Andrew Macharia
Date of birth : 1939 ( five children)
Position : Project coordinator Chairperson
Contact : P.O. Box 54368 – 00200
Nairobi
Cell phone : 0722 792820
2. Educational : ‘O’ Level
Background
Courses attended on solid waste management:
Organic farming training 1994
Cooperation management 2006
World Technology Network
Workshop in London project 2001
Solid waste management 2005
methodology and practice
National poverty eradication
workshop in Nyeri. 2006
Work experience: Retired truck driver 1993 East African Breweries
: CGR Project coordinator and
Chairperson since 1996
: Chairperson of plastic
Waste cooperative Sacco since 2006
: Technical director,
Zanzibar Recyclers company
(ZAREC) 2004-2005
3.Achievements:
Founder member city Garbage Recyclers Institution
Founder chairperson the plastic waste recyclers
cooperative savings society.
Technical advisor for the Zanzibar Recyclers Company with over 200 employees.
As CGR project coordinator implemented the Clarence foundation’s funded project, UNDP Global Environment facility and EU micro Enterprise support program (MESP).
CGR won the 2000 Dubai world environmental award and the East African Environment Association among others as well as World Technical Network award
4. Social Responsibilities:
Member of Nairobi provincial Agriculture Advisory Board
Member of Local National Environment Management authority.
Ashoka fellow member
Member uvumbuzi club
Board member Mukurweini community Health centre.
5. Interest hobbies: Travelling
Conservation of living creatures
 | 264 weeks ago unclogging sewers and drainage systems in nairobi low income estates has been chosen as a finalist in Tapping Local Innovation: Unclogging the Water and Sanitation Crisis. |
