Plastic Kenya
I went to Kenya and did some field research on plastic and its role within Swahili culture and politics.
Kenya is made up of 42 tribes spread across the country each with their own traditions, rituals, beliefs, dialects and political views. One of the most developed (hate the term 😣) countries in East Africa, Kenya is still facing great challenges to meet health and economic stability.
While walking and talking with people in the streets of Nairobi and surroundings, daily hustling to make a few dollars, all you can hear is a strong sense of distrust and skepticism about the corrupted government.
6% GDP growth, often mentioned by politicians seems to be a false metrics (as it often is 🤑) to assess Kenya. Youth unemployment hits record figures of up to 61% in certain areas of the country, with salaries for the lucky ones ranging between 200$ and 300$ a month.
The government claims 60% electricity access with the promise to get to full coverage by 2020. However, blackouts are currently the norm across the country, except for tourist dense areas where they make sure no disruptions occur. Doctors and teachers are in strike since December 2016 (Yes, doctors can go on strike 🤔).
Currently in a severe drought, the country is struggling to find viable ways to secure water for its citizens- both drinking and household water. The streets are full of people filling, collecting and transporting water around the cities dedicating their entire days to this activity. Water is transported on heads, shoulders, donkeys, trolleys, cars and trucks. Mothers, kids, mothers with kids, everyone has to cooperate. Whole areas of Nairobi and the country have their running water cut off for days.
Pyramid of needs kind of epiphany.
Poverty and lack of education results in huge numbers of kids sniffing glue, grandpa drinking Changaa and friends chewing Miraa. Their own way to deal with tough circumstances where abstraction of reality seems to be the only viable way to go.
The nation is approaching elections in August 2017 which makes the political landscape incredibly unstable and anxious. Previous elections caused upheavals that resulted in over 1400 deaths in the streets. Everyone talks about the elections, some people are scared while others are excited.
Major players dictating much of the policies on the ground are the World Bank and the United Nations. Like big time.
A solid waste management system seems to be almost entirely absent. A few independent projects, often initiated by NGO, doing what they can to process waste locally but definitely a long way to go. And lots of opportunities for improvement (read Precious Plastic 😇).
Plastic is everywhere
Animals eat it, ocean sucks it, locals burn it while tourists are screened from it, maintaining the pristine nature’s illusion 🔮. Plastic piling up in illegal dumpsites, stranded on beaches or burned at every corner.
Polyethylene bags, deceivingly called paper bags, are given with reckless ease for every item purchased. PET bottled water seems to be predominantly a Muzungo (white face 😐) thing, hence limited in quantities particularly in the poorest regions. Drinking water for locals is distributed in yellow HDPE 5L containers which are used over and over again, prolonging their life cycle but eventually ending up as waste. HDPE cooking and motor oil containers are instead amongst the most common types plastic waste around the country.
The pungent smell of burning plastic is a constant in the streets, with little understanding of the consequences to human health and the atmosphere. While cooking some pasta for my host family, Mama told me she lit the same fire I was cooking with using some plastic waste we, ourselves (the Mozungos), produced during the day. Poignant truth.
On a bright note, lighters are nearly impossible to buy in Nairobi with more sustainable matches as the only alternative. Tree leaves are often used as packaging and right before leaving I met some people using beautiful bamboo straws in a local bar.
*Right after I came back, Kenya’s plastic bags ban made my day.
Upcycling, reusing & recycling
PET plastic bottles (1,5L and 5L) are generally reused at least once to refill oil or fuel at a market price of about 0,15 $ per unit. Yellow water containers used by locals are sold for 1,5 $. I found one upcycling shop transforming plastic in woven beach bags- small thing.
Traveling across the country I encountered a number of small size plastic recycling ventures collecting, separating, washing and shredding plastic to be sold back to the industry. These programs are usually initiated by NGO or government programs.
Dandora Dumpsite
While in Nairobi I visited Dandora dumping site, one of the biggest open landfills in Africa. Practically the only place in Nairobi if you have to get rid of some trash. Dandora dumpsite was declared full by the authorities back in 2001, since then a bunch of armed gangs took control of the site.
Gangs’ members make sure everyone dumping waste is paying their fair share. A fully loaded truck is charged 2$ to dump their trash, astonishingly cheap even for a developing country like Kenya. I payed 6$ to be escorted (probably to the same criminals).
The 30 acres Dandora ecosystem is home to people, animals and new biological systems. Hundreds of waste pickers rush after the trucks to search the “fresh” waste looking for food, paper, metal and plastic. People with dreams, aspirations, fears and love, just like me and you. Only difference, they earn one or two dollar a day and lack the necessary education to get themselves out of those circumstances. I like and admire people from Dandora. Next to them is a swarm of animals, thousands of birds scavenging for food, myriads of rats and tens of pigs. All doing the usual thing, searching for food. Surrounded by new geologies of trash inspired by nature, but not quite. Mountains, plateaus and rivers. Man-made alienoids.
Plastic is collected by waste pickers and amassed in a corner till enough is found, PET and HDPE mainly. They get 0.25 $ a kg. A group of women is also collecting unsorted plastic but much less is payed for that.
Kibera Slum
A city within the city. Kibera slum homes about 250.000 people. The biggest slum in Africa they say and only second to Rio’s. Hotels, pharmacies, hospital, restaurants, circumcision shops, metal and wood workshops, street markets and everything you might need to survive.
Schools are many and the only real buildings with thousands of kids running around. The rest is mud houses with corrugated metal roofs. Trash is everywhere. Plastic is burning at every corner. What a waste!
Shredding Ventures
Thanks to some ambiguous and totally random connections I was lucky enough to come across and visit Kleanbera, an exciting project collecting, separating and shredding plastic in the heart of Kibera slum.
Talking to Nesta, head of the project, I got some super valuable info on how they collect, separate and sell plastic back to the industry in this unique context. Pretty much along the lines of a Precious Plastic workshop, they mange to pay 0.15$ for each kg of plastic collected- this is quite a bit of money for the area!
Once separated they wash it by hand and shred it with an industrial shredder. The shredded plastic is then sold to the industry for anything between 0.22$ and 0.50$ depending on the type of plastic and oil price.
Traveling across Kenya I came across similar projects in Lamu, Mombasa and Nairobi. Identical business models, machinery and problems. Huge motors, huge energy consumption, small margins subject to fluctuating oil prices and difficulties to maintain and fix the machines.
I can’t help but thinking how much Precious Plastic could help projects like this. First, what they payed for their industrial shredder could easily cover a full set of Precious Plastic machines. Second, they would know how to fix it and do maintenance. Third, and most importantly, they wouldn’t be slave to dancing oil prices as they could set their own prices for the products they make.
Identifying Plastics
At Kleanbera they used a peculiar way to separate the plastic they collected. Instead of checking the plastic type from the signs on the products (1, 2, 3 etc..) they are able to separate plastic based on the different manufacturing processes involved in making the products.
Wambu, an employee, showed me how to spot an injected moulded product over a blow moulded one- very interesting. The logical conclusion is that in Kenya there is a much smaller variety of plastics, with only one type of plastic used for each manufacturing process at a national level.
Precious Kenya
We’re currently in the process of finalising a Precious Plastic pilot in the region to bring our solution to alleviate plastic waste to the people of Kenya.
The pilot, currently developed with 2 local partners, would help clean the environment from plastic as well as creating jobs for local youths in desperate need to find an occupation. The country’s cultural and political context feels ripe for Precious Plastic’s bottom up social innovation model.
This trip made me confident Kenya is the right country to make plastic recycling go bananas 🍌🍌🍌
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