By Tabitha Munyiri
Nakuru County, Kenya: Kenyans will now be forced to separate their waste at home into different bags as per a new waste Management Bill. Under The Sustainable Waste Management Bill 2021, a fine not exceeding KSh 20,000 or a jail term not exceeding six months will apply to anyone found mixing waste.
The bill, developed by the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, and passed by the National Assembly and the Senate seeks to fill the gaps in waste disposal and management. It also seeks to promote the recycling of recyclable materials thus reducing the masses of landfills in the country.
According to Dr. Ayub Macharia, Director, Environment Education and Awareness in the Ministry of Environment and Forestry. Garbage collectors will also be barred from collecting unsegregated waste.
This comes as the country looks forward to managing its plastic pollution situation. Besides segregating waste at the domestic level and Kenyans will also have to mandatorily pay for their waste to be disposed of by licensed garbage collectors.
“Any person whose activities generate waste ensures that the waste is transferred to a person who is licensed to transport and dispose of the waste in accordance with the Act.” reads the bill in part.
Currently, an estimated 30% of garbage generated in Kenya, goes uncollected by appropriate authorities and is disposed of on roadsides and in water bodies.
This bill is set to be operationalized in the next six months, giving the ministry six months to educate the public on its provisions.
Waste segregation will see to it that the country attains a circular economy that maximizes the recycling of recyclable materials. Currently, the situation is dire as waste is mixed up in dumping sites, making recovery of recyclables hard.
For example, one approaches the Dandora dumpsite, the stench from the site precedes one’s view of it. As you draw closer, acrid smoke from the heaps of garbage can be seen in the air.
From the smell that comes from the dumpsite, it is hard to imagine that there are people who come around the site and stay for hours in the environment.
However, when one gets to the site, you find people, mostly women and some children in the large heaps scavenging for valuables they can sell and in return get money for food and other basic commodities.
According to a report released by the National Environmental Complaints Committee (NECC), in July 2021, Kenya generates 22,000 tonnes of waste per day with Nairobi producing 2,400 tonnes. Sixty to 70 percent is organic waste, 20 percent plastic, 10 percent paper, two percent metal, and one percent is medical waste.
In major cities and towns, green, yellow, and blue bins have been strategically placed for dumping. Just like in the towns, green bins will be used for collecting organic waste while blue and yellow bins will be used for dry and special waste respectively in estates.
Currently, the waste is mixed up and pickers go through the often rotten masses; some without protective gear such as gloves, gumboots, and face masks, as they seek anything they can sell to recyclers and scrap metal dealers.
The environment the pickers expose themselves to is harmful and affects their health, since many materials that end up as waste contain toxic substances and people end up inhaling the fumes from routine waste burning.
Frequent contact with heavy metals such as lead and mercury and medical waste also has their fair share of repercussions, with cancer topping the list.
A UNEP report dubbed ‘Implications of the Dandora Municipal Dumping Site in Nairobi, Kenya’ – listed cancers, respiratory abnormalities, and blood and skin disorders as some of the public health effects likely to emanate from a polluted environment, such as the Dandora dumpsite.
One year after the operationalization of the Act, county governments will have to prepare a county waste management plan and quarterly monitoring reports for cities, urban areas, municipalities, and administrative units. They will also have to establish waste recovery and recycling facilities and sanitary landfills for the disposal of non-recoverable waste.
Speaking during a Multi-Stakeholder Dialogue on Plastic Pollution and Kenya’s Priorities for the Inter-Governmental Negotiating Committee (INC) to Develop a Plastic Treaty hosted by the Center for Environment, Justice, and Development (CEJAD) in Nairobi, Dr. Macharia, however, said new facilities are not necessary at the moment.
“We don’t need new facilities. Although we are talking about material recovery facilities and composting facilities and landfills, we can reorganize what we already have. Our dumpsites are huge. Orders can be given to counties to divide existing dumpsites. Dandora, for instance, can be divided into three sections; a section for wet or organic waste, another for dry waste, and the other for the landfill or residual waste,” he said.
Joseph Wandaka, Chairperson, Nakuru Scrap Metal dealers, who receive scrap metal and plastics from pickers at the Gioto Dumpsite in his collection yard in Nakuru, said that should the public embrace segregation at home, materials collected for recycling will have maintained a higher value as they would not have experienced contamination.
Griffins Ochieng’, Executive Director, CEJAD, noted that as the country seeks to address the issue of plastics and especially single-use plastics, alternatives to the problematic plastics, which are mostly single-use plastics, should be sort to have the problem solved in the long term.
Programs Manager at Sustainable Inclusive Business Ebenezer Amadi urged the public to tap into the waste business which is set to ensure that Kenya achieves a circular economy.
