Kampala losing billions in unrecycled waste

By Gerald Tenywa

IT is common to see empty mineral water bottles or other litter flying out of a car window in Kampala City. The reckless occupants of the car do not stop to think that what they are doing leaves behind a mess in the city.

But when heaps of garbage threaten to bury the entire city, the residents of Kampala are quick to point an accusing finger, calling for heads to roll at Kampala City Council (KCC). They forget they are part of the problem.

“It is not true that KCC has done nothing about the problem of waste disposal,” says Silver Mukulu, a waste management expert from KCC. “We collect waste and take it to Kiteezi, off Gayaza Road, where the urban poor sort it to get waste that can be used to make useful materials.”

Everyday, says Mukulu, an estimated 1,500 tonnes of waste is generated in Kampala, but only 600 tonnes of waste is removed and dumped at Kiteezi.
Kampala’s residents are lucky because 90% of the garbage they generate rots, Mukulu points out, adding that the entire landscape would have been swallowed by now. “It is sometimes swept away by the floods during heavy rains.”

Mukulu was reacting to accusations from managers of a plastic bottle recycling factory at Kinawataka in Kampala, who complain that a total of 170 tonnes of plastic waste is produced daily, but only 2% is collected for recycling. They say most of their raw materials are strewn in heaps of waste and some of them are mixed with hazardous waste such as medical waste, making it unsafe for the sorters to pick plastic bottles.
The main problem with waste disposal among Kampala residents, is that the waste generators do not care as long as the waste is not in their backyard.

“They struggle to get waste out of their environs,” says Mukulu. “Some of them pretend to be evening shoppers and once there are no watchful eyes, they drop the waste and rush back to their homes.”

Creating a link between waste and agriculture
Hardly a day passes by without politicians saying Uganda’s backbone is agriculture, but the soils are starved of nutrients. There are no efforts to harness cheap organic manure from the freely abundant waste to benefit millions of farmers. For example, banana peelings, leaves or potato vines could be used (recycled) into organic manure, instead of being dumped and polluting places like Nakivubo Channel.

“It is time for politicians to take action,” says Banadda Nswa, a waste management expert from Uganda Environment Protection Forum, a local NGO. “If people were aware of the link between waste and agricultural productivity, they would probably embrace waste management.”

There is a small group of “unsung heroes” who retrieve banana peelings from waste and make chicken feeds or charcoal briquettes and organic manure. Ironically, these people are despised as ‘scavengers’ but now environmentalists like Nswa believe such people are the ones doing real waste management.

On the conversion of waste into wealth, Nswa sees provision of employment, raw materials and increase in agricultural productivity and a cleaner and secure environment as some of the benefits.

The main problem with politicians is that they have scanty understanding on better use of waste and the policy interventions that can help convert waste into wealth.

“When we want to change attitudes and culture, it is important to come up with a policy,” says Nswa. “But the Government has always taken a back seat when it comes to addressing waste management.”
“We need a paradigm shift — some communities have come up with some initiatives, but the Government is not providing the necessary support and policy direction,” says Nswa. “That is why we want to show the Government that the garbage recyclers are working and advocate a policy.”

Nswa has been supported by the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) to undertake a pilot project in Rubaga Division for one year, to work with the informal garbage collectors.

State Minister Jessica Eriyo in plastic bottle collection drive
In addition to this, an initiative by Plastic Recycling Industries and Living Earth Uganda has created a partnership to promote awareness in 20 parishes out of the 99 parishes of Kampala. Their aim is to enhance waste collection in Kampala”.

“It is difficult to get empty bottles and waste sorters have to go to Kiteezi to get them,” says Alex Byarugaba, the executive head of Plastic Recycling Industries. “If KCC was delivering these bottles to plastic recyclers at Kinawataka, KCC would earn over sh60m per day.” Byarugaba asserts that KCC is spending money from its meagre resources to destroy waste, which could act as raw materials for industrialists.

At the launch of the enhancement for collection of waste, which Jessica Eriyo, the state minister for environment presided over last Monday, some of the participants were overheard saying the minister was mourning as if she does not have power.

How many people unwrap airtime cards and create this waste everyday?” asks Eriyo. “What is the responsibility of the companies in collecting the waste?”
This, Eriyo pointed out, was the time to remind the generators of waste about their responsibility. “Garbage is still a big challenge in Kampala, all the responsible bodies should get involved in order to have a clean city,” says Eriyo.

The minister confessed that two clean up campaigns organised by the environment ministry had not borne any significant fruits regarding the change of attitudes of the population.

“Can you imagine that a woman who did not know me shouted out that I had forgotten to clean up a heap of waste near her working place,” says Eriyo.
The minister also took a ‘slap’ from another participant, who pointed out that politicians were turning into “waste collectors” instead of becoming “solution providers.”

However, the solution to waste management lies in having good policies, sound institutions to undertake the policies and involvement of the private sector, says Swithen Tumwine, the executive director of Living Earth Uganda.

“It is important to teach people to become more responsible citizens and to work together as a team,” he says.