Why recycling is the new green business frontier

By Sospeter Opondo

Kenya: Recycling is not just a matter of recovering recyclable material, it is a total economic system.

The curbside collection programmes in most estates is only the beginning of a recycling loop.

At present, the cost of collecting and processing recyclable materials in Kenya far outweighs their value as a commodity that can be sold back to industries.

And until consumers set out to deliberately buy recycled products, the potential they put out at the curb or into their office bins will remain untapped.

Despite the proliferation of curbside garbage collection companies and public awareness campaigns, recycling programmes around the country are not working.

Government institutions like the National Environmental Management Authority and local county boards have yet to implement a pilot project that uses modern urban recycling plants that consume all sorts of wastes for the production of recycled materials.

While public policy makers are still trying to assess what is wrong with recycling programmes, large corporations and small entrepreneurs are in the best position to take the lead and challenge current recycling myths,including the supposedly high price and low quality of these products.

More importantly, it is in their economic interest to do so when it comes to consumer and business demand for the products made from these materials for sustainable growth.

To some extent, individual entrepreneurs have successfully, created, albeit on a small scale, a supply of recycled newspapers, glass bottles, office papers and similar materials.

The success of recycling — indeed, its true value in the long term — will not depend on how much landfill space is saved but on whether it makes economic sense. And it does.

For instance, the advent of modern recycling has created a large supply of potential feed, composed of recovered waste from homes and offices. With the help of central and county governments, processing centres or material recovery facilities can be set up to deal with contamination problems. Further, since these facilities are often labour-intensive, they create massive employment opportunities.

The most common reason given for the current dearth of recycling is supply and demand problems. Media stories abound about recycling centres and waste hauliers who dump loads of plastic bags and bottles, newspapers and phone credit cards into landfills after failing to secure a market. This junk ends up forming unsightly mountains of filth and creates public health problems.

Governments and industry need to reach an understanding on the complexity of the problem, and come up with a strategy that tackles the growing garbage menace while taking advantage of the green business frontiers it presents.

If counties took recycling seriously and the government made a serious stab at educating the public on the value of reusing products instead of sending them to landfills, we would all reap the economic benefits of sustainable consumption.

The writer is a business development consultant.

bizbeat@standardmedia.co.ke