Waste Management in Nairobi
Using design to create sustainable change within the waste management domain
The first project Nairobi Design Institute undertook in 2019 explored the problem domain of waste management in Nairobi. To do this, we used a design thinking approach, which is rooted in Human-Centred Design. With each subsequent stage of the project, we employed divergent & convergent thinking and kept refining and narrowing the focus of our design challenge. My role in this project mainly included Design Research.
The Challenge
From households to dumping grounds, waste can be found all over Nairobi, a clear sign of the struggle the county is having with waste management. The main landfills, like Boma in Dandora, are near or beyond full capacity. Where there is regulation about dumping rubbish in public spaces, there is neither enforcement nor a sustainable alternative for people. This means waste producers and garbage collectors are dumping their rubbish in unregulated public spaces and/or in the rivers or sites unsuitable for rubbish.
How might we reduce the amount of waste that gets to the dumping site?
Read on to discover how we used design thinking to develop a concept according to the following steps:
I. Understand
II. Empathise
III. Define
IV. Ideate
V. Concept Development
I. Understand
We began with desktop research to better understand the context we would be designing for. What we discovered informed how we planned our research and how we refined our challenge.
As the biggest producers of waste, households lack awareness and education on the proper ways to deal with waste from the point of generation. Waste management at the household level involves collectively throwing away garbage, regardless of what type it is.
Furthermore, people begin to develop their value systems between the age of 10–24 years. Yet, there is a general lack of awareness on how to handle waste since it is only taught at a high level in educational institutions. Young people are at the intersection of learning institutions and households. They can transfer what they learn at school to home and when they grow up, to wherever they will end up. This could create an impact on generations to come.
The biggest problems in solid waste management are around waste sorting practices and behaviours. Unsorted waste can be unusable or resource-intensive to sort and recover valuable materials from.
There was thus a need to uncover barriers towards proper waste management practices and behaviours and design a solution that both incentivized and encouraged better waste management practices, with a focus on sorting.
How might we incentivize and encourage the sorting of waste from households and learning institutions to help reduce the amount of waste that gets to the dumping site?
II. Empathise
To better understand the waste ecosystem we carried out field research with different stakeholders including households, learning institutions, garbage collectors, junk dealers and recyclers. The research involved conducting contextual interviews, group interviews, making contextual observations and engaging them with design activities.
Research Objectives
- Uncover attitudes and perceptions towards Waste Management
- Understand types of waste generated in households and institutions
- Understand what waste management methods are practised
- Design models to incentivize better waste management practices
Research Participants
Households: From all 3 income levels to understand whether their locations affect how they perceive waste and waste management.
Schools: To understand what they learn about waste management and what practices they use.
Garbage Collectors: To understand their work, the challenges they face and uncover any differences in how they collect
Junk Dealers & Recyclers: To understand what they do and how they make money
Research Locations
Dandora: This is where the largest landfill in Nairobi is, which has made it the subject of many waste management interventions. The participants here also represented our low-income earners demographic.
Nyayo Estate: The second-largest housing scheme in Africa is hailed as one of the cleanest residential areas. We were keen to investigate the systems and behaviours that set Nyayo estate apart as a reference point in Africa. The participants here represented our middle-income earners demographic.
Kilimani & Loresho: To learn whether the challenges and behaviours of individuals in households & learning institutions located in high/middle-income areas differ from the rest.
III. Define
After carrying out research we went through a structured synthesis process which led us to 6 main insights. We then created an accompanying opportunity area for every insight. The insights were divided into the following broad themes:
- Household Sorting
- Sustainable Waste Management Practices in Schools
- Knowledge Gaps
- Unprofitable Business Model for Garbage Collectors
- Exposure to Health Risks
- Disconnect Between Stakeholders
1. Household Sorting
Despite people knowing different types of waste, they find sorting tedious. This demotivates individuals in households from engaging in proper waste management practices. This is further worsened by the fact that garbage collectors are likely to mix all sorted waste either in hand carts (mkokotenis) or in garbage tracks. Besides, proper facilities to handle the different types of waste at the household level are lacking. Waste is then not sorted at the source which means a lot of recyclable waste ends up at the dumping site.
“I can sort but after sorting, the person that picks the garbage mixes them all again so what’s the point of sorting?” — Salon owner, Dandora
HMW change the perception of sorting in households from tedious & time consuming to a natural & effortless act?
2. Sustainable Waste Management Practices in Schools
Schools are an incubator for building value systems where students learn by example from teachers. However, most schools use waste management as a form of punishment creating a negative perception towards sorting practices both at home and at school.
“How else can we punish students if not through cleaning? Beating them is not allowed anymore.” — High school teacher
HMW leverage teachers’ influence to create a new basic standard of waste management practices in schools that encourages environmental sustainability?
HMW change the narrative of waste management in schools to “Your waste is your responsibility”?
3. Knowledge Gap
Households and institutions lack adequate information on proper waste management practices yet the leadership within waste management departments has a vast knowledge of all types of solid waste management. Also, most people do not know how to properly handle and dispose of hazardous e-waste which is harmful to both human beings and the environment in general.
“We can talk about e-waste for the whole day. The issue is huge as people own a lot of electronics both at home and work and yet they don’t know how to dispose of it well.” E-waste Center Manager
HMW best highlight the effects of poor waste management to incentivize better waste management within households and in communities?
4. Unprofitable Business Model for Garbage Collectors
Garbage collectors charge a fixed fee to collect waste from households. The waste collected is then sorted into different categories which are then sold. Any waste deemed non-valuable is transported by hand carts (mkokotenis) to different disposal points. The money collected from households and selling of sorted waste is then used by the garbage collectors for their livelihood.
Rapid policy changes around the ban on plastic bags for collecting garbage as well as inconsistent garbage collection payments and unpredictable earnings from the sale of sorted waste have led to workarounds by garbage collectors (like washing used garbage bags) to manage their living costs.
“Our work is like a free service to the community. It’s not sustainable. What we get is not enough to support our livelihood.” Garbage collector, Dandora
HMW create a model for garbage collection businesses that can offer sustainable livelihoods?
5. Exposure to Health Risks
There are lots of health risks involved in waste collection. These include the handling of broken glass and handling of hazardous e-waste which exposes garbage collectors to toxic materials such as lead and mercury contaminants. Despite this, neither do the people handling waste own any protective gear nor do they practice proper safety measures.
“We don’t use protective gear like gloves or gumboots because we can’t afford them” Garbage collector, Dandora
6. Disconnect Between Stakeholders
Conflicting practices and frameworks within the different stakeholders involved in handling waste hinder the whole process of waste management. The enforcement of waste management policies on the ground is administered differently based on who you know. This creates frustrations and inefficiencies in the implementation of proper waste management practices. Recycling companies thus find it difficult to get affordable raw materials from sorted waste products.
“Since waste is not sorted at the source we get raw material that is tampered with and not of good quality. This affects the whole process of recycling.”- Recycler
HMW ensure valuable waste gets to the stakeholders who derive value from it by improving the journey of waste?
IV. Ideate
The opportunity areas that we found in the generative research phase were further explored during the Go Global 2019 program with students from the Innovation Design Engineering (IDE) course from Royal College of the Arts (RCA) and Imperial College London, students from Gearbox and designers from the Nairobi Design Community. During the program, different ideas were tested and explored together with the users, leading to 6 different concepts.
V. Concept Development
After evaluating the different concepts based on their desirability, viability and feasibility we selected one called Vituu to proceed with. Vituu is a logistics platform that facilitates the waste enriching, value addition and 3Rs (reuse, reduce, recycle) value chain. It was based on the insight on the disconnect between stakeholders.
HMW improve the journey of waste to ensure it gets to stakeholders who enrich and generate value from it.
We carried out research once more to further understand this domain and uncovered insights that can be divided into 4:
- Inconsistent Market Prices
- Unavailable access to a guaranteed market
- Non-standardised measure of waste quality
- Inefficient transport
1. Inconsistent Market Prices
The waste journey from a broker to a recycler is not transparent. There’s no payment structure in place and remittances are inconsistent. This is a predatory model that allows informed middle-men to take advantage of setting the market prices that are beneficial to them.
“We, the collectors, don’t know what the recyclers need. Those guys who buy from us understand what the recyclers want and come up with prices.”- Garbage collector
2. Unavailable Access to a Guaranteed Market
The network of stakeholders who derive value from waste is loosely established. The barrier to entry in this business is high since its success is heavily reliant on whom you know. This limits the number of people one can buy/sell from, thus affecting the amount of income they can make and lowering the potential of the value addition ecosystem
“I trust that whenever I call recyclers, they’ll come and buy all my waste. They are my priority. ” — Collector
3. Non-standardised Measure of Waste Quality
There is no standardized process for material sourcing and sorting. Different stakeholders have different ways of measuring quality. Garbage collectors source and sort valuable waste based on their assumed understanding of what might be needed in the market. This sometimes leads to recyclers rejecting the waste brought to them, since they are not up to the required standard for them to recycle. When this happens and collectors don’t sell waste they collected and sorted, they run losses in both money and time.
“A driver has to be accompanied by 3 people to sort the waste who ensure that the plastic material they bring has at most 5% waste. That is how I ensure I get more quality material and less waste.”- Richard
4. Inefficient Transport
The transportation process is highly dependent on several variables like loading, offloading and movement. Waste is sorted before loading based on the collectors understanding. The process is then repeated by the recycler to select what they need. This repetition is due to distrust and an absent standard of measuring the quality of waste.
“ It takes 5–6 hours to complete the loading process because they need to sort the waste again to take what they consider as valuable to them. ” — Ndegwa
Conclusion
The next steps for this project involve designing the mobile application and USSD that the key users can use to move the valuable waste from one point to another and get paid.
From this project, I learned that research never stops. For a solution to be grounded in the users it will serve, users need to be engaged as active participants, right from the beginning. Not only to learn their needs and desires, but to co-create what an ideal solution looks like with them, not for them.
