Drop waste in designated areas, Malindi campaigners urge residents

Stakeholders in Malindi have launched a campaign to sensitise residents and businesspeople against illegal dumping of waste within the resort town.

The move is aimed at ensuring the waste is dumped in designated areas where there are collection centres and bins installed by Malindi municipality.

Already the county government has passed a law that criminalises illegal dumping of waste and soon offenders will be arrested and charged.

During the monthly clean-up organised by the Progress Welfare Association of Malindi, which began at the BP area to Malindi's new bus park up to the hospital, the municipality installed a bin at one of the illegal dumpsites.

Their campaign got a major boost after they came across a man who is earning a living from collecting plastic bottles in dumpsites and households within the town.

Patrick Mwangi was carrying plastic bottles he had collected and revealed that he earns a living from it, getting a minimum of Sh400 per day.

“My job is to collect plastic bottles in dumpsites and within the households where they are thrown recklessly. We feel we are contributing to a clean environment,” he said.

He called on residents to throw plastics at specific areas for them to be collected easily instead of dumping them everywhere.

Mwangi said there are about 20 plastic bottle collectors within Malindi and urged the county government to identify a market that can fetch good prices for them.

Effue Opiyo, chairperson Malindi Green and Blue, an affiliate of PWAM, said they have been doing clean-ups since 2019 and are happy that people are getting sensitised on the need to keep the environment clean.

She said they were happy the municipality has now begun to keep bins within the town and they plan to sensitise people to end illegal dumpsites and burning of waste within the resort town.

“We are encouraging the community to use the plastic wastes that have more benefits if they sell them as they can be recycled to make better products,” she said.

But during the clean-up some youth confronted the stakeholders angrily seeking to be paid to clean but they calmed down after they were helped to see the opportunities available in plastic waste.

Kate Mwikali, the chairperson of PWAM, said trash is cash and advised the locals not to dump it recklessly.

She urged Kilifi Governor Gideon  Mung'aro to build open waste transfer stations within Malindi town, which are estimated to be over 60, to enable locals drop waste inside.

Currently, she said, there is only one transfer station that has a structure in the Baobab area but the rest are just open, which makes it difficult for the community to throw litter and prevent it from spreading all over.

“There is a challenge when municipality officials ask people to throw waste in the open transfer stations. Sometimes the waste is blown by the wind, birds go there, which brings confusion and locals cannot throw at the designated area,” she said.

Mwikali said there are many illegal dumpsites, which will complicate the plan for the county to enforce the law.

“As PWAM, we want to adopt one collection site to build it through the guidance of public health, Nema and municipality officials,” she said.