Restructuring the Waste Sector

Strengthening the Informal Sector for Collection, Sorting and Processing of Municipal Waste

Expert Mission in October 2017 in Nairobi, Kenia

As an expert on solid waste management, Michael Paulus from the Berlin city cleansing municipal company was assigned for an expert mission to Nairobi, Kenya from Connective Cities. Ntombozuko Bekwa, an expert from Pick it up from Johannesburg, complemented the team.

The expert mission was carried out as a follow-up to the local workshop “Community-based Solid Waste Management” taking place in Nairobi in January 2017. Conducted jointly by Nairobi City County and Connective Cities, the workshop aimed at developing an action plan for strengthening the informal sector of waste industry in Nairobi. Both events were preceded by two further Connective Cities workshops on related topics in 2015 in Dar es Salam and Nairobi. In these workshops, about 30 practitioners from Sub-Saharan African countries, including Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Kenya, South Africa, Congo and Lesotho, as well as experts from Germany took part. During the workshops, challenges within the waste industry of Sub-Saharan Africa were pinpointed. Through action plans, project sketches and project ideas, solution approaches were identified, from which clearly defined projects emerged.

As in many other newly industrialising and developing countries, numerous people of the informal sector are active in waste management in Nairobi. This often occurs when no waste collection is organized by the local authority. In Nairobi there are approximately 200 local initiatives (Community-based-Organizations; CBO`s) in the waste management sector. The initiatives are very heterogeneous in their size and structure, and their aim is receiving a regular income through the activities. Nevertheless, the initiatives are lacking the necessary basic equipment to set up collecting structures even on a small scale. This includes for instance protective clothing, collection carts, transport containers, collection containers etc. After the collection from the private households, the waste is brought to central assembly points, which are insufficiently equipped. Usually there is a lack of sufficiently large spaces, an adequate base plate for safe temporary storage of waste, possibilities for a first coarse sorting, shredders for crushing the plastic, but also of simply equipped toilets and small offices. The CBOs have no means of transporting the waste to the landfill and depend on the support of the municipality or private enterprises. If the transport is not working, some of the waste is burnt directly on site, which leads to high pollutant emissions. The possibilities for the separation and the subsequent sale of raw materials are not fully utilised due to lack of information, collective possibilities and contacts to customers.

Michael Paulus supported local practitioners in Nairobi on developing a coherent overall approach to improving the situation of the informal sector. For this, a detailed project planning was conducted, which could serve as a basis for possible financing by third parties. As a part of the project planning and based on the initial situation, the objective was described, the necessary work packages and landmarks set, and a capability- and budget planning developed.

In the first step of the project, three selected CBOs will be provided with the necessary equipment and basic infrastructure for the proper collection, treatment and transport of the waste. Parallel to this, the structures and processes will be reconsidered. The result is a well set-up structure and process organisation in the selected CBOs, enabling them to work professionally and business-oriented. If the CBOs are also to manage the transport of the waste, they must be equipped with trucks. Expensive machinery can be shared between several CBOs.

In the selected areas, the informal sector subsequently contributes to a clearly perceptible improvement in the appearance of the city and forms the basis for the further development of a functioning waste management. The newly organised CBOs serve as multipliers for the subsequent roll-out. The basis for the rollout is the exchange of experience between the CBOs, enabling peer-to-peer learning. For this, suitable communication opportunities and platforms will be created within the framework of the project.

In order to ensure a sustained success of the project through stronger support of the informal sector by the administration, the structures in Nairobi City County are also being reconsidered. Building and financing the necessary resources is, thus, an essential part of the project.

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