Got plastic waste? Muita will turn it into building materials, save the environment

To 34-year-old Joseph Muita, garbage is gold.

He transforms plastic waste into valuable construction products.

At Muita’s Constructive Plastics Limited company plastic waste is recycled into strong and beautiful building products such as cabro paving blocks, manhole covers, litter bins, plastic poles and interlocking blocks.

The firm crushes up to a hundred tonnes of plastic waste in a month.

Muita says his passion for recycling waste is driven by the critical need to have a clean environment amid worrying reports of worsening pollution.

On International Environmental Day, the United Nations warned that at current levels the earth could be awash with 12 billion tonnes of plastic trash by the middle of the century.

Kenya is grappling with deforestation and depleted forest cover. Muita emphasises the need for a viable solution, which could be found in plastic building materials as opposed to wooden materials.

Constructive Plastics products offer easy solutions through provision of alternative and more affordable building materials particularly to low-income earners and those living in informal settlements.

“Waste has the potential of creating houses for millions of homeless people while curbing pollution in the process, and Kenyans are looking for quality and affordable housing, not quality that is imported and of high cost,” the entrepreneur said.

His plastic innovation has caught the attention of the county government of Nakuru, which is seeking to partner with his firm in production of eco-friendly building and construction materials that utilize solid waste and turn it into valuable resources.

While making his presentation to the county officials led by Environment, Energy, Natural Resources and Climate Change executive Dr Nelson Maara, Muita explained that after collection, the plastic waste is sorted, cleaned and then crushed.

It is mixed with glass waste before being put into an extruder machine where the polymers are heated and combined with sand and a hardener in a process referred to as extrusion.

The plastics are then moulded into different shapes that are used in the construction industry to build low-cost, safe and sturdy houses. The firm, located in Nakuru East constituency, operates 24 hours a day, enabling it to recycle 100 tonnes of plastics every month.

Muita explained that the products vary in density and size depending on the need, adding that the advantages of using the products was that the termites don’t eat them, they don’t rot, and cannot be vandalized for firewood, something that is widespread with timber products.

Muita said pre-casting enables the client to customise their houses to taste in terms of brick colour and shape, and even match the pavers. This he said results to the house being sturdy, less costly and with little time consumed during construction, as no time is lost in mixing mortar and placing it between bricks.

“It is our desire to see Kenyans construct a two-bedroom house in one month at a cost of Sh850,000,” the entrepreneur said.

Muita revealed that the firm has contracted more than 200 youths to collect discarded plastics and rubber from dumpsites, estates, shopping malls and companies in addition to contracting community-based organizations who supply it with semi-processed waste material such as plastics.

He said waste was becoming a major menace in many suburbs and constitutes the biggest challenge in solid waste management.

Muita said he was transforming a social challenge into an opportunity and called on government, private sector, non-governmental organizations and financial institutions to come together to chase a common goal.

While acknowledging that plastic in itself was not a problem, Muita said it was the way Kenyans dispose of it that was increasingly becoming a problem. He advised that more focus should be on the way plastic waste is managed, adding that the firm’s recycling model could turn out to be one of Africa’s best bets in conserving the environment.

Nakuru Environment executive Maara said construction cost in Kenya is high because most of the materials are imported, in addition to the fact that wooden poles are prone to vandalism for firewood or destruction by ants.

“It is estimated that by 2050, the world’s population will be somewhere around 8.6 billion people, with about 1.3 billion of these living in Africa," Maara said.

"Already, decent affordable housing is a problem and when you look at it, apart from land, the cost of materials is the other factor that pushes construction costs up, yet we have so many resources like plastics that we have not exploited.”

He said on kilo of plastic waste saves 2.5 kilos of carbon emissions.

Maara said plastic recycling is a key step towards achieving the circular economy agenda, as it will not only cleanse the environment but also create multiple job opportunities and ensure plastic clients are guaranteed 20 years.

Kenyans are not known to embrace alternative methods of construction, afraid that they could be inferior to conventional methods that they are familiar with. This explains why cement-based concrete has dominated the building industry.