Mombasa County bans daytime dumping in three sites

One of the uncollected stinking garbage continues piling up along Majengo road in Mombasa County. [Maarufu Mohamed, Standard]

The county government has banned daytime dumping of waste at the three designated dumpsites in Kibarani, Mwakirunge and Shonda.

Environment and Energy Executive Geoffrey Nato said dumping of waste products should be done at night. “We have over 1,000 licensed garbage collectors and we have directed that dumping of waste must be done at night,” said Dr Nato.

“Mombasa County generates more than 2,200 tonnes of waste daily, which is attributed to bottles, card boards and glass dumping,” he added.

Speaking during a plastic management forum attended by Nema Director General Geoffrey Wahungu, Nato said plastic bottles had been a major problem.

“Poor linkages and coordination between waste collectors and recyclers has been a major challenge to the county government,” he said.

“We are yet to see manufacturers roll out a plastic bottles recall systems, but it is our hope that once rolled out the recall framework will go a long way into making it easier for recyclers to obtain their raw materials.” 

Statistics indicate that globally, we use 500 billion plastic bags each year, yet it takes about 100 years for plastic to degrade.