• Official says they have plans to recycle 50 per cent of bottles generated this year.
• Says they face challenge when transporting plastics bottles across counties due to high levies.
Image: FILE
The private sector wants to recycle 70 per cent of plastics produced in the next three years.
Petco Country Programme Manager Joyce Gachugi told the Star on Monday that the company targeted to recycle 30 per cent of plastic bottles last year.
“We managed 38 per cent,” she told the Star on the phone.
Petco is the trading name of Kenya PET Recycling Company, a company incorporated in 2018 to represent the Kenyan PET plastic industry’s joint effort to self-regulate post-consumer polyethene terephthalate (PET) recycling.
Gachugi said they have plans to recycle 50 per cent of bottles generated this year.
She said Kenya generates 21 tonnes.
Globally, plastics production increased from two million metric tonnes in 1950 to 381 million metric tonnes in 2015.
Cumulatively, the world had produced 7.8 billion metric tonnes of plastics by 2015.
However, there are only two companies doing recycling-one based in Kiambu county and another one based in Nairobi’s Industrial Area.
She said they would wish to have more recycling firms within the country.
Gachugi said they have a challenge especially transporting plastics bottles across counties.
“If we are transporting plastic bottles from Mandera for instance, each county will charge levies which will make recycling very expensive,” she said.
Segregation of plastic bottles remains a challenge, she said.
The Kenya Association of manufacturers says that the daily plastics consumption in Africa ranges between zero to 0.2kg per person; with South Africa being the only exemption.
Kenya’s daily plastics consumption is estimated to be 0.03kg per person.
Water bottles are seen as a major nuisance for the environment in Kenya with many littering rivers, the Indian Ocean, forests and drainages.
Two companies have however stepped up their efforts.
Based in Kiambu, Taka Taka Solutions is currently collecting and recycling garbage in Nairobi and its environs.
The company collects and sorts waste from major waste sources like notable hotels and malls as well as national and international institutions.
And in order to reduce the amount of waste landing in their dumpsites, the company recycles 95 per cent of the waste it collects.
Waste is sorted into more than 45 fractions within their two sorting sites in Nairobi.
The company also makes composts out of their separated organic waste, which is sold to farmers.
Mr Green Africa is another company working with informal waste collectors by integrating them into their value chain.
The company collaborates with informal waste pickers and accepts the collected waste at one of 25 trading points, predominantly set up in Nairobi’s low-income areas.
With the use of digital applications, Mr Green measures and keeps a record of each of its suppliers.
Through the app, the company also informs about the rates plastic wastes are sold at, thereby assuring transparent prices paid to the suppliers.
It has built a relationship with its suppliers by giving fair and stable prices but also by offering supplier loyalty programmes and services.
Mr Green focuses on the collection of plastics, specifically PET bottles, HDPE, PP as well as aluminium and papers like cartons.
Last year, the government announced that it will not ban PET bottles but instead enact laws and regulations to strengthen recycling and circular economy sector.
Edited by R.Wamochie