Malindi Beach Management Unit has launched a programme of buying plastic waste collected from the beach and the town.
The aim is to help in making the resort city clean and environment friendly.
All the trash consisting of plastic bottles is now a source of income for those taking part in the Malindi monthly clean-up organised by the Progress Welfare Association of Malindi.
Malindi BMU chairman Yunus Aboud said they got a foreign donor who is buying the plastics at Sh15 per kilogramme.
Speaking after taking part in the exercise attended by school children, Jambo Jet staff, hoteliers and youth, Aboud said most of the plastics in the area are now being collected by the youth on drugs.
He said currently when they see the plastics, they know its trash which will become cash, and collect it before selling them at their offices.
Aboud also told the participants from different schools to take the collected plastics to the BMU offices where they will be weighed before payment.
In an interview, he said the donor who buys the plastics has an organisation that does recycling hence the high demand for plastic wastes.
“It adds value to us because as we do the clean-ups, we end up getting cash out of the trash collected,” he said.
The BMU chairman said the project began late last year after the donor heard about his efforts to clean the beaches so as to keep the environment clean.
Plastics are a threat to marine life, including turtles among other species.
Robert Karume, a businessman in Malindi who was part of the team of from PWAM, said along the beachfront there were a lot of wastes but they managed to clean them.
Karume said children who took part in the clean-up were very helpful as they made it possible to collect a lot of rubbish.
“Part of the rubbish in form of plastics will be sold to some people who are working with plastics so we are very happy with the work that has been done today,” he said.
Emmanuel Kombe, a pupil from one of the schools that participated, said they were happy to be part of the clean-up as they learned that they can use the plastic bottles to set up nursery beds at school.
Kombe further said they were about 20 pupils from his school who came for the exercise which will help keep the environment clean and attract tourists.
“Mine is to emphasise to the children that they should not sit idle during this holiday. They should be organised and form just little groups to clean their compound in their community," he said.
Evans Owino from Jambo Jet Airline Kenya said they were happy to partner with Pwam in the clean-up exercise and they feel to be part of the community.
He said the environment was part of their Corporate Social Responsibility.
(edited by Amol Awuor)
