MANAGING WASTE IN UGANDA

FACULTY WORLDWIDE

As a result of industrialisation, urbanisation and the lifestyle and consumption patterns of a growing urban middle class, waste streams are consistently increasing in Africa. However, in most rural and urban areas waste management is largely non-existing. Raphaël Verhofstede, alumnus of Technology Campus Ghent was involved in a waste recovery project in Kampala (Uganda).

Avoiding solid waste dumping and land - filling. These are the aims of the Material Recovery Facility Project set up by the non-profit organisation Humasol and Waste Masters Ltd, a local private company specialized in collecting and disposing of solid waste and recyclable materials in the districts and municipalities of Uganda’s expanding capital Kampala. Other partners involved in the project are the World Bank, the National Environment Management Authority, Entrepreneurs for Entrepreneurs and the local authorities.

Processing plant

“Waste management in developing countries is characterised by a linear approach”, Raphaël explains. Only 43 % of the generated waste is collected. What remains ends up in the streets or is burnt in pits. If there is any collection from the middle income households, it is mainly carried out by various private companies. In the city of Kampala you can find almost 80 collection companies. The public enterprises are mainly in charge of the waste collection along the streets or the local dumpsites. From there, the most valuable materials are swiped by scavengers. However, this amount represents only 3 % of the whole waste content. The remaining part ends up on the landfill, unused and unrecycled while raw materials are becoming more scarce and expensive.”

The Waste Masters project aims at adapting a Material Recovery Facility (MRF) outside Kampala in the next five years. “At the plant recyclable materials such as paper, plastic, metals and glass will be sorted, processed and recycled. Organic waste will be transformed into compost.”

Non-biodegradable

About 80 % of the waste composition is organic and could be used as fertiliser. According to Raphaël there is still a major problem. “A large part of the compost made today consists of plastic and other non-biodegradable materials, which means that the fertiliser is polluted with heavy metals and other toxic substances. The purpose of the Material Recovery Facility is sorting the waste after collection instead of landfilling. Plastics, paper, metals and glass will be recovered and processed into new products.”

In the longer term, the goal is to educate the customers and change their mindset to separate the waste into a biodegradable and non-biodegradable fraction at source. This will facilitate the sorting process, whereas the MRF could be used to segregate the nonbiodegradable fraction. The biodegradable fraction could be processed into a high quality compost without any pretreatment.

The Material Recovery Facility is a 5 year plan. “During the academic year 2016-2017 Humasol will send 3 to 4 engineering students to Kampala for an internship. They will design and implement a low cost semi-automated sorting facility, capable of recovering valuable materials from collected mixed solid waste. It is the first part of an ambitious and pioneering project helping the local people in a less prosperous region.”

Yves Persoons