February 22, 2023
Media Contacts: Margaret Otenyo email: wastefree23@gmail.com
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Innovative Process Recycles All Types of Plastic Waste
Waste Free in ‘23 Initiative Crowdsources Breakthrough Profitable Waste Solution
(NAIROBI, Kenya — February 16, 2023) Today, Nairobi non-profit Slums Going Green and Clean (SGGC) announced its open-source Waste Free in ’23 initiative to clear the world of plastic waste utilizing profitable micro-recycling centers.
“At the end of 2022, we recovered, recycled, and repurposed all common plastic types collected from the Nairobi River and Kibera at our first micro-recycling center,” said Brian Nyabuti, founder of SGGC. “Nairobi, like the rest of the world, was recycling less than 10% of plastic waste and disposing of the rest in landfills, communities, and the environment. With these innovations we are now able to recycle the remaining 90%,” he said.
A cadre of engineers, scientists, and recyclers collaborated with the Waste Free in ‘23 initiative to solve trash and recycling problems in low-income communities. The team adapted common recycling equipment used at major recycling centers to create a micro-recycling center in Kibera, an informal settlement in Nairobi. Equipment for a micro-recycling center costs $2000 and consists of a shredder, plastic slicer, heat press, and molds that can process up to 200 kilograms of waste a day. The Kibera micro-recycling center was funded through crowdsourcing.
Throughout the world, only 10% of collected plastic waste is sold to recyclers, leaving 90% of low-value plastics, such as food wrappers and packaging, unusable. However, the Kibera micro-recycling center has created a way to recycle all these low-value plastics.
The center inserts the low-value plastics unwashed and unsorted into a heat press. In just 20 minutes, the plastic is bonded into components that can then be used to construct products such as tables and chairs, trash bins, panels, and fence posts. These items can then be sold for a profit directly back to the community that houses the micro-recycling center. The small amount of plastic that should not be heated can be shredded and added to concrete. The micro-recycling center is staffed with four workers who earn a living wage.
“We are turning trash into treasure,” said Nyabuti. “We don’t need trash to be disposed of in the environment or burned at landfills. And with the equipment designed to be low cost and to be built anywhere in the world, thousands of communities can join Kibera in becoming Waste Free in ‘23.”
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Slums Going Green and Clean (SGGC) is a non-profit based in Nairobi, Kenya. Find its open-sourced materials on micro-recycling at https://slumsgoinggreenandclean.org/sggc/