Quality resource recycling

Submitted by Michael Funcke-Bartz on 12. April 2015 - 18:24

Organisation (Stakeholder)

Background

In Nairobi 2.5 out of 3.5 million people cannot afford waste collection services. But even collected waste is improperly disposed on Nairobi’s Dandora dumpsite.           

TakaTaka Solutions was founded in 2011 to overcome the existing waste management situation in Nairobi and beyond. Most waste in Africa’s cities remains uncollected, causing severe health and environmental problems, in particular for the urban poor. In Nairobi 2.5 out of 3.5 million people cannot afford waste collection services.

Approach

TakaTaka Solutions’ focus on waste separation allows for recycling of previously discarded products: organic waste, paper, glass, metal, plastic bags, and many more. Some of these materials are recycled in-house by TakaTaka Solutions (organic waste, textiles and glass); others are recycled by external recycling companies (paper, metal, plastics). TakaTaka Solutions’ approach makes it possible to close the loop for valuable resources and gives them a new life.

By recycling and composting 80% of collected waste, TakaTaka Solutions is able to offer affordable waste collection services across all income areas. At the same time, TakaTaka Solutions offers employment to underprivileged youths from lower income areas.

TakaTaka Solutions has four brands for its different divisions:

• Taka Collect
• Taka Compost
• Taka Textile
• Taka Glass

Results

The initial separation of waste into two fractions (organic and inorganic) by our clients enables us to separate further and recycle the various waste components into valuable resources.

Organic waste: The vast majority of waste that we collect is composed of organic materials (around 70%). All of the organic waste we collect is brought to our central composting facility where we produce Taka Compost.

Recyclables: From the inorganic waste fraction we sort plastics (containers, bottles, packaging), papers (paper, cardboard), metals and others. These materials are then sold to recycling industries across Nairobi.

Textiles: Collected textiles (clothes, shoes) are separated, washed and either re-introduced into the local second-hand market (mitumba) or recycled. These activities fall under the brand Taka Textile.

Glass bottles: We create beautiful wine glasses and tumblers out of recycled bottles which we call Taka Glass.

As a result of waste separation efforts at both the household level and by our employees, we compost and recycle 80% of the waste we collect. The leftover residual waste is sent for disposal to legally accredited landfills.

Period of Implementation

Contact person

E-mail

Website

Waste hierarchy

• Recycling

Waste type

• Biomass
• Glass
• Metal
• Paper & Cardboard
• Plastic

Area of intervention

• Research
• Operation

Location