One man’s rubbish is another man’s goldmine

By Peter Thatiah

For many people, waste papers are unwanted and dirty things that have no use in their lives.

But to Chandaria Industries, waste paper is all they need to keep them in business.

Every kilo of non-plastic paper that is thrown away with the garbage is a chance for their mills to process five rolls of toilet tissue or paper towels\serviettes. Nothing that goes in through the mill’s gate at Baba Dogo Road goes to waste.

Waste paper

At Chandaria Industries, waste paper is all they need to keep them in business. [PHOTO: MBUGUA KIBERA/STANDARD]

Whether it is domestic, office or printers’ waste paper, the mill welcomes all. Even the products that come out of the manufacturing line as waste is returned and made into fresh toilet paper.

RK Archarya, the mill manager, says waste paper is a big opportunity for jobless people in different parts of the country to curve out a trade for themselves.

The mill employs 900 people directly and supports a further 4,000 families, most of them in Nairobi.

But the art of turning waste paper into useful products requires a lot of capital and human labour.

At the end of the day, money from the factory trickles back to the paper collectors in the estates and the offices. There are also middlemen who buy waste paper and sell to the factory in bulk.

Says Chandaria Industries Managing Director Mahesh Chandaria: "We don’t deal with middlemen. We encourage even individual paper dealers to come and sell paper to us. As a result, we pay an average of Sh750,000 every day mostly to small dealers. The money goes directly to them."

Besides toilet tissue, waste paper also produces paper towels.

Explains Acharya: "We make different types of paper towels to suit different purposes like wiping the face, the hands, use in the cars, use in the kitchen and also use in hotels."

Different manufacturing methods ensure different end products.

The process starts at the warehouses, where waste paper is heaped into small hills. From this point it is taken to the wash areas, where big machines mix it with water while removing unwanted matter like plastics and small stones. "Some people put stones to enhance the weight of their sale. We only discover later," says Acharya.

Because nobody else wants the materials that they deal in, business in waste paper is never on a downturn. Indeed, sometimes there is so much waste paper that they are overwhelmed. Being the largest paper recycler means that most of the paper is directed to their warehouses.

"We never turn away waste paper," says the mill manager.

With 40 tonnes of waste papers passing through their hands every day, the city is well supplied with toilet tissues and related products.

"There is an ever present risk of fires breaking here because of the large amounts of paper we handle. That is the only risk around this place. But we have never experienced any," says Archarya.

White napkins

To make sure the garbage collectors who supply them with waste papers are constantly in business, the mill is operated day and night.

The factory is the only of its kind in Kenya that uses de-inking process that produces white napkins that are in great demand in the hospitality industry in both Kenya and Uganda.

As for the MD, he is content every time he drives around Nairobi and sees the mountains of garbage that city residents churn out daily.