Why Waste is The New Golden Opportunity For Kenyans

By Albert Mwazighe

mmwambonu@ke.nationmedia.com

Did you know you can now earn from your waste? Well, in a new waste management model, you can
make up to 300 shillings in a day from trash. Havilla Smart Enviros, a local company in the waste
management industry is paying customers up to 22 shillings per kilogram of waste. Their valuation is
based on the quality of the waste. Plastics and polythene are preferred.

Going by the slogan ‘waste is value’, the company is looking to radically transform the country’s garbage
disposal approach. The startup, a brainchild of Mr Samuel Maina, encourages people to start handling
waste as a valuable product and to start segregating its different components at their homes.

Since 2014, when it started operating, Havilla Smart Environs has managed to buy and shred more than
3000 tons of waste, which they have then sold to other companies at a handsome profit. In a year, they
generate a gross income of up to 10 million shillings. For their efforts they have been nominated for
Ambassador of Environmental Pollution by the Kenya Recyclers Association.

At their premises in Ngong, clients and suppliers bring in waste, which is then weighed on a digital scale.
Their digital scale is connected to a mobile app, which takes measurements in kilograms. This is sent to
the server that calculates how much money one is to be paid. The money is sent to suppliers directly
through mobile money platforms. Those who do not have Mpesa or mobile money are paid in cash.

“The reason why we buy waste is because we want to teach people to start segregating from source,”
said Mr. Samuel in a recent interview.

“Whenever someone realizes that waste is value, from their own house, this is plastics, metal, they start
segregating at source.”

As any other enterprise though, their business faces challenges. The biggest is waste contamination.
Waste contamination is the mixing of different types of waste materials that occurs when they are all
disposed off in the same container.

“When recycling waste, it is so much contaminated. This starts from the households because that is
where it is mixed up; plastics, together with diapers, together with waste that was not supposed to be
mixed up,” said Mr. Maina

The other, he says, is perception. “Once people know you are in the industry of waste management,
there is that mentality that I don’t need to associate myself with that person, yet that waste has come
from them.”
The population of Kenya is at close to 50 million. In the next 20 years, it is expected to rise to about 70
million. This means innovative ways to recycle waste will be mandatory as dumping fields shrink. That’s
why they are building collection sites all over Nairobi where people will bring their waste and get paid for
it