Convert your trash into treasure

Waste is Africa’s big elephant in the room. It is the eyesore that we often gloss over. Nevertheless, waste shouldn’t be an eyesore and we shouldn’t sweep it under the rug.

Trash is literary treasure. A Kenya Private Sector Alliance Association (KEPSA) official powerfully drove this point home in a presentation that he recently made during a National Environment Management Authority (NEMA)-organised gala dinner on enhanced solid waste in Kenya. The occasion was also used to launch the country’s scorecard on waste management.

In his presentation, the KEPSA official reminded stakeholders that if one saw money in trash, one would get their hands dirty to retrieve that money. I found this to be a compelling plea in that; we must certainly place value to our garbage, roll up our sleeves and manage waste in a radically different way that will bring out the treasure hidden in the trash.

From the sixties to the eighties, Nairobi City had a robust waste disposal system that however started disintegrating in the nineties. Unfortunately, the same scenario is now being witnessed in our 47 counties. Waste is commonly treated as something to be cheaply disposed off. I suggest that we now strategically focus on innovatively managing our trash.

During the gala, Mr Charles Sunkuli, the Principal secretary, for the Ministry of Environment, passionately emphasised this point. He said that, ‘the scorecard being launched today provides an important starting point and a call to action for counties to demonstrate commitment to prudent environmental practices. Going forward the scorecard will serve as a measure of efforts by counties to tackle the solid waste management. The scorecard is leveraged on the axiom ‘what cannot be measured cannot be managed.’ Undeniably, our counties need to be on the forefront of waste management.

On the policy front, the tremendous team at NEMA has developed the National Solid Waste Management Strategy. In addition, the country now has a National Environment Policy 2014 that sets out a blueprint for the management of the environment and natural resources in Kenya. Further to this, the Climate Change Act has been enacted. It seeks to ‘enhance climate change resilience and low carbon development for the sustainable development of Kenya.’ For these policies to make a profound difference in waste management we must support all stakeholders to implement such revolutionary policies, otherwise they remain impotent.

Policy must nonetheless be accompanied by both individual and mass action. A fortnight ago NEMA launched a Rapid Results Initiative that will last for one hundred days. The rallying call and activities of this initiative ultimately seek to achieve zero waste by 2030. I humbly suggest that we passionately embrace this initiative by sorting out that waste that we produce from our homes and workplaces. Carefully remember that eventually your trash is someone else’s treasure. Guard it by thinking and acting green!