Munyasa reaping from plastic waste

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Hellen Munyasa, a youthful resident of Zanna on Entebbe Road is earning a living from a bizarre sector—Kampala’s smelly waste.

She makes useful items such as sewing threads out of waste, particularly used plastic bottles. Munyasa, who dreams of building the biggest waste recycling empire in east and central Africa, can recycle up to 10 tonnes of plastic bottles a year.

She hopes to increase capacity this month.

“We are expecting a recycling plant that can work on 25 tonnes of waste every month,” she says, adding that her dream is to recycle 80 tonnes each month.

“Waste recycling is the next big thing,” she says, adding that she is working around the clock to tap the billions hidden there. 

Born in 1992, Munyasa is married with two children. She holds a bachelor’s degree in fine art from Makerere University (2015). She became self-employed before graduation in 2012.

Uplifting women

Munyasa is not working alone: “I have a network of waste collectors who are women". She adds that she has collecting centres within Kampala and Wakiso districts.

“The women earn some money, and they can look after their children and take them to school. When you work with women, you empower them and uplift a community,” she says.

How she started?

Ten years ago, Munyasa, who is a graduate of industrial art and design from Makerere University, was importing several items, including sewing threads from China to make her products. In a bid to get a better profit margin, she innovated the idea of making fibre from plastic waste.

“I realised that the threads could be made cheaply from plastic bottles,” she says, adding that she started extracting them from waste in 2021.

Along the way, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Uganda also gave her a grant, which enabled her to travel to China to buy a machine that makes sewing threads out of plastic bottles. The machine is expected in Uganda by the end of December.

Munyasa’s products have a big market which she says she cannot satisfy. “We have covered less than 10% of our potential market in Uganda,” she says.

Waste management experts like Phillip Sentamu of Waste Aid (Uganda), who have worked with Munyasa, describe her as a waste collector, recycler and ‘wasteprenuer’.

Hellen Munyasa, a resident of Zana who makes useful items out of waste, shows a plastic bottle and sewing threads. (Photo by Gerald Tenywa)

Skilling waste collectors

Munyasa has been trained as a waste collector alongside 60 others by Waste Aid, a UK charity.

The training seeks to reduce waste and promote the economic empowerment of informal waste pickers and collectors in Kampala. The training seeks to enable people like Munyasa to employ more people, improve livelihoods and reduce waste at dump sites.

The collectors are going to be mentored and also provided with seed funding, according to the team behind the training says Phillip Sentamu, a Waste Aid official, adding that they will also be monitored for three months.

“We are going to network with the communities with LCs and other actors,” Sentamu says.

According to Moses Angeny, a waste consultant, there would be no rubbish if people could turn it into wealth. “Waste is about perception,” Angeny says.

Angeny is one of the consultants working with Sentamu to empower Munyasi and her colleagues in the pilot being promoted by Waste Aid.

Circular economy

David Mununuzi, a senior environment officer in the directorate of environment affairs at the water ministry, says because Uganda is urbanising at a high rate, waste management should be prioritised.

“Unless we embrace the circular economy model, we are going to be buried in our own waste. Waste should be a concern of everyone,” says Mununuzi,” he says.

A circular economy is where waste becomes a raw material for making another product, Mununuzi says. “We need to sort and set up collection centres for different kinds of waste,” he says.

Mununuzi also proposes producer extended responsibility where polluters pay for cleaning up the environment. For instance, the producers of plastics must label their products and the parties cleaning the environment must benefit from the polluters of the environment.

“The circular economy is expected to be part of the National Development Plan to encourage recycling. This is one of the highest levels of commitment within Government,” Mununuzi says.

Dr Anthony Mugeere, a research fellow with Advocates Coalition for Development and Environment, says Uganda will have no waste if the country embraces the circular economy model, which runs under the 7Rs: Rethink, Refuse, Reuse, Repair, Regift, Reuse, Reduce and Restore.

He says reducing waste will not only protect the environment but will also save on costs or reduce expenses for disposal, according to Mugeere.

“It benefits the environment by lessening the need to extract resources and lowers the potential for contamination,” Mugeere adds.  

Climate change and the need to protect biodiversity, which are some of the most pressing crises are making the circular economy model more relevant.

It also gives responsibility to all sectors of society to be mindful of how they manage waste.

Mugeere says some of the incentives that can interest the private sector in taking up the circular economy include: tax waivers, free land (in industrial parks) for investments, availability of free extension services and markets for their products, according to.

Uganda is one of the countries that is implementing the circular economy model in Africa. The country took a major step towards creating a circular economy to drive sustainable growth and green industrialisation in line with its Vision 2040 national agenda. With the support of the African Development Bank, the country launched the circular economy roadmap process on 31 January 2024 in the capital, Kampala.

Uganda produces 600 tonnes of plastic waste every day and about 40% is recycled, according to the State of Environment Report released by the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) in 2021. This means that Uganda recycles less than half of the plastics that are generated daily.