Kenyan-based Tech firm MR. GREEN AFRICA on Revolutionizing Recycling of Plastic Waste

The theme of this year’s environment day, commemorated on June 5, 2023, focused on finding solutions to plastic pollution under the campaign #BeatPlasticPollution. According to data from the United Environment Programme (2023a), whose headquarters are in Nairobi, Kenya, over 400 million tonnes of plastic are produced yearly, with 50% classified as single-use plastic, which is mainly used for packaging of various products such as foods and beverages and other commodities. It is unfortunate and more concerning that only 10% of this much plastic gets to be recycled and that up to between 19 and 23 million tonnes worth of plastic end up in some of the sensitive water bodies such as lakes, rivers, oceans, and seas.

By Peter Kinuthia

Most countries manage their plastic waste through landfills and combustion, which only results in choking up the ecosystems and polluting the environment.

During rainy seasons, most of the floods witnessed in urban centers are mainly due to the clogging and blockage of the drainage systems by the plastic waste that is mismanaged and left unattended. The combustion of plastic waste releases harmful toxins and greenhouse gases into the environment, which adds more to environmental pollution by compromising air quality. The United Nations Environment Programme (2023b) indicated that plastic waste generated up to 1.8 billion metric tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions in 2019 alone, equivalent to 3.4% of the total global emissions.

There are few entities dedicated to handling plastic waste in all countries. Some countries do not have a single entity committed to contributing to any form of solution to the plastic pollution crisis. As such, it is highly commendable to see some startups positioning themselves to provide solutions to the challenge of plastic pollution in society. One such startup in Kenya includes Mr. Green Africa, popularly abbreviated as MGA, and it has been identified as the pioneer plastic waste recycling company in the country. One of the things that makes this particular startup interesting is that it is in the informal sector, or under the informal recycling sector, IRS. From a business perspective, the informal recycling sector refers to the unregulated system of collecting, sorting, and recycling waste. It mainly operates outside the formal government or even under the private sector structures.

The Mode of Operation

The most interesting and notable aspect of the IRS, such as that of Mr. Green Africa, is that it comprises poor and marginalized individuals and workers comprising rural migrants, the unemployed, the disabled, women, and children. These individuals collect, recover, and recycle different forms of plastic waste as a source of income. For instance, most of the waste collectors working for Mr. Green Africa are slum dwellers in Kenya who collect and recover plastic waste from some of the unmanaged landfills and dumping sites in the city.

MGA has its approved collection centers, referred to as the green points, operated by an MGA employee. Waste collectors bring their plastic waste to these points, where they get to sell it at a rate of KSh15 per kilogram. MGA operates by offering an in-house end-to-end process of waste recycling where it purchases the collected, sorted, and recovered plastic waste from its sourcing agents and waste pickers. The entity has a series of trading hubs in Nairobi and Kisumu cities, where it receives and buys the collected plastic. MGA later processes the plastic waste and sells it to the manufacturers, who use it to manufacture fast-moving consumer goods. MGA has managed to eliminate the interference of middlemen and other predatory businesses through this business model, ensuring that it deals directly with waste pickers. This has been made possible by using technology-enabled information flow and related transactions that offer reliable and fair pricing and significant income improvement.

The data from the Global Innovation Fund (2023) indicated that MGA managed to recycle up to 1,600 metric tonnes of plastic in the year 2020 alone, which was the equivalent of up to 4.8 million kg of CO2 emissions saved per annum. Also, they offered economic empowerment to up to 640 individuals involved in waste picking. In 2022, MGA collected and recycled up to 2,300 metric tonnes of plastic waste and economically empowered up to 2,000 waste pickers, per the Global Innovation Fund website data. According to the United Nations Environment Programme (2023a), the informal sector, which involves approximately 15 million people, is responsible for up to

58% of all the plastic waste collected and later recovered globally. The informal sector and entities such as Mr. Green Africa are crucial in significantly reducing the amount of waste in landfills and dumpsites, mainly in urban areas. MGA and the larger IRS have significantly benefitted most municipalities, most of which have demonstrated the lack of elaborate and comprehensive waste management systems.

Challenges Faced by MGA and the IRS

Despite their dedication, sacrifice, and commitment to resolving the plastic waste problem, the IRS encounters many challenges. One of the notable challenges includes the infiltration and interference of middlemen and other businesses who seek to gain the profits and revenue generated when plastic waste is collect- ed, sorted, and sold. Another critical challenge that MGA faces is inadequate safety measures, which expose waste collectors to various health risks. The other challenge includes social stigma, where the job is associated with low social status, especially considering they work in dumping sites and landfills. The IRS, such as MGA, also lacks formal recognition and integration into the national or sectoral waste management system, which hinders growth and development.

The Way Forward in Empowering IRS and startups such as MGA

There is a greater need for the IRS and entities such as Mr. Green African to be accorded formal recognition, support, and necessary collaboration from both the public and private sectors. This is so as most of these landfills and dumping sites accommodate huge amounts of plastic waste from private businesses and also entities from the public sector. On this, it is worth noting that Mr. Green Africa got an undisclosed amount of funding from DOB Equity and the Global Innovation Fund. The management of MGA affirmed that it would use the funds to scale up its capacity to recycle more waste and establish a formidable strong, reliable supplier network.

The work of MGA has inspired the Unilever Company and has sought collaboration and partnership to assist it in scaling its recycling capacity. The private and the public sector can offer such support to startups such as Mr. Green Africa in terms of resources and funding to increase their capacity for plastic waste collection, recovery, and recycling. Such support and incentives would encourage similar startups to emerge and position themselves in adding value to plastic waste through reuse and recycling. This would, in turn, offer more economic empowerment to the marginalized individuals, most of whom dwells in the informal housing areas, where they are likely to be exposed to a wide range of social crime such as prostitution, drug abuse, and crime because of unemployment. Mr. Green Africa has affirmed its goal of increasing its capacity to process up to 15,000 and 20,000 metric tonnes of plastic waste from the larger and broader East African region. The Responsible Citizen Magazine hopes to see more such startups in the IRS across the African continent and that they get support from both the private and public sectors to have more sustainable and plastic-free societies that add value to waste and create a source of income.