Kololo SS’ strategy to dislodge kaveera
Oct 30, 2023
As part of the Green School Project Initiative countrywide, Kololo’s effort to turn kaveera into recyclable and dependable bags, shoes, and baskets restores hope to the highly polluted environment, which has been a health hazard.
As part of the Green School Project Initiative countrywide, Kololo’s effort to turn kaveera into recyclable and dependable bags, shoes, and baskets restores hope to the highly polluted environment.
Isaac Nuwagaba
Journalist @New Vision
________________________________ Kololo SS Headteacher Edward Kanoonya and students holding a tree for planting during the recent school cleaning exercise Teacher Margaret Nyafwono and Godwin Museme demonstrate the process of turning recycled kaveera into useful products Students planting grass on a bare belt at school as part of protecting environment degradation A sample of sandals made by Kololo SS students from polythene bags The chairperson school council, Ivan Andemani (center), with other students showing compound grass that should be planted in schools
Polythene bags, locally known as kaveera, are an environmental hazard. Kaveera contains an array of dangerous chemicals that mix with food when heated, posing health risks. One such chemical is bisphenol-A (BPA), which increases the risk of certain types of cancer, ulcers, and reproductive problems in women.
When these bags are burned, they pollute the air with attendant harmful effects. Because they are non-biodegradable and take up to 2000 years to decompose, they lead to land and water pollution and cause death in animals when ingested.
Improperly disposed of, polythene bags block drainage channels, leading to floods, especially in urban areas. Uganda is said to spend up to sh10b a year on opening drainages blocked by buveera.
It is against this background that Kololo Senior Secondary School in Kampala has launched new recycling innovations to dislodge ‘buveera’ from their campus and the communities.
As part of the Green School Project Initiative countrywide, Kololo’s effort to turn kaveera into recyclable and dependable bags, shoes, and baskets restores hope to the highly polluted environment, which has been a health hazard.
The innovations dubbed Keeping School Green were launched two weeks ago at the school campus in Kampala, with four main components: doing away with kaveera and plastics, planting grass and trees, as well as compound cleaning.
Edward Kanoonya, the headteacher, while presiding over the launch, revealed that the school was in the process of procuring heat compressors, electric sewing machines, and cutters to start producing bags in bulk from recycled plastic waste.
Despite its known dangers, the government’s attempts to ban Kavera have been unsuccessful since 2007.
Polythene bags and plastic materials have also killed livestock, degraded soils, enhanced water run-off, and caused soil erosion. They have also blocked drainage channels and polluted rivers and lakes.
For 21 years down the road, the ban on kaveera by the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) has remained only on paper, without any hope that it will be permanently banned from society.
Innovations
Young innovators, with the help of the Kololo SS administration, have devised unique local technology to turn plastic waste into useful products such as key holders, handbags, backpacks, toiletry bags, and school bags.
Behind these innovations are two teenage boys, Godwin Museme from S.5 and Robert Abesiga from S.6, who researched how kaveera can be turned into strong and durable bags that can carry more than 15kg.
“We started these innovations to solve our school problems of having every student have a nice school bag to carry at the back, since we are all-day scholars traveling home daily,” Abesiga said.
“Our next step is to engage the school administration into realising our aim to cause massive production of such bags for all of us here and even sell some surplus to other students in other schools.
“The greatest challenge is securing a sh4m heat presser that can help us process many polythene bags at one time for massive production,” he added.
For us to be able to produce on a large scale and be able to earn from our innovation, we are seeking support to buy an electronic sewing machine at sh1.2m and a non-electric sewing machine, which goes for over sh700,000, Abesiga said.
Processes under which a kaveera is turned into a handbag
Museme says they collect buveera littered in the homes of neighbours, on the roadsides, in drainage trenches, and garbage skips in the city.
“We sort them according to colors and different types because different factories produce different materials of different sizes,” he disclosed.
The next step is to wash them with liquid soap to reduce germs and the smell. This helps us to ensure that we produce a clean product. Museme reveals that after washing, they dry the polythenes and press them on the table, after which they place manila papers on top and then iron them.
“Combining various polythene bags helps us come up with the thickness of a processed layer of burnt kaveera to offer the required durability of our bags, depending on the size of sponge we want placed inside the bag,” he explained.
The final layer of polythene bags in this process is cut in the designs that we want to fit the required size of our bags, depending on the amount of sponge we want inside the product.
“Each sponge from the tailor is sold to us at around sh20,000, plus the zips and labour incurred to produce the final product,” he disclosed.
Sometimes, a flat iron is not always preferred, and we end up going to the city centre to use a heat compressor because it saves us a lot of time and improves the quality of the final product, he added.
Margaret Nyafwono, a geography teacher, said since the Green Schools Initiative was introduced by the Swedish International Development Agency at the Embassy of Sweden in Uganda, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in partnership with New Vision, it has empowered them to plant trees, manage school waste, and be able to plant grass on bare grounds to make beautiful green belts at school.
Climate change
Climate change is affecting different sectors, ecosystems, and society at large in the form of floods, storms, prolonged droughts, and high temperatures.
“The education sector is not spared. School infrastructure has in some areas of the county been destroyed, affecting learning and increasing the spread of waterborne diseases, which has made education objectives unattainable,” she added.
Uganda generates over 600,000kg of plastic waste each day and spends about sh10b annually to clear drainages of plastic waste.
So, polythene bags do not only cause harm to people and the environment but also cost people a lot of money.
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