Counties blamed for failure to adopt waste management plants

Failure by counties to establish Material Recovery Facility (MRF) is hindering efforts to deal with waste. MRF is a solid-waste management plant that processes recyclable materials after being brought while already segregated.

The Sustainable Waste Management Act 2022, requires devolved units to establish waste recovery and recycling facilities and sanitary landfills for the disposal of non-recoverable waste.

Director of Compliance at the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) David Ongare, however, says it is a continuing conversation with counties through the Council of Governors (CoG) and based on readiness level since it was an engagement initiated by several counties.

The government had plans to establish five MRFs as pilot projects in five counties of Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu, Nakuru and Eldoret but that has not been realised even as the country marked Mazingira Day yesterday.

Former Cabinet Secretary for the Environment, Climate Change and Forestry Soipan Tuya, in July, said the establishment of MRFs was to be done in the financial year that ended on June 30.

Under the Constitution of Kenya 2010, sustainable waste management is a devolved function and the 47 county governments have the lead role in delivering sustainable waste management services.

Nairobi, which has about four million dwellers, produces around 2,400 tonnes of solid waste a day.

Only 45 per cent of the waste generated in Nairobi undergoes any sort of recovery or treatment while most of it ends up in open dumps or is burned.

Kenya generates an estimated 22,000 tons of waste per day.

It is estimated that 40 per cent of the waste is generated in urban areas. Given that urbanisation is increasing by 10 per cent, the Kenya urban population will be generating an estimate of about 5.5 million tonnes of waste every year by 2030, which is three times more the amount of waste generated in 2009.

NEMA’s Director, Environmental Education Ayub Macharia says the government plans to transition from linear to circular economy to recover all resources from waste.

“The waste that is available in Kenya is only five per cent, the rest is a resource that has not been tapped. Our urban waste is 60 per cent organic, 30 per cent recyclable and 10 per cent others,” said Dr Macharia.

“Within that 10 per cent others, five per cent can be used for waste to energy since it has some calorific value and only the remaining five per cent is supposed to be at the Dandora dumpsite. The law says we are not supposed to have dumpsites but landfills because we will recover all the resources from waste,” Macharia adds.

A landfill site is a location that has been prepared for dumping waste, rubbish or debris.

Before the land is used to store waste, diggers are used to give it a suitable shape and it is covered with an artificial water-resistant coating to prevent the rubbish from contaminating the soil.

Six MRFs have since been established as a result of collaboration between the county governments of Tharaka Nithi, Kisumu and Taita Taveta and three Kiambu county-based private entities named Taka Taka, Whitmund and Junky bins.