Start writing hCities around the world face great challenges due to increasing urbanization and one of them is the rising amount of waste generated. According to the World Bank, in 2016 the worlds’ cities generated 2.01 billion tons of solid waste per year. With rapid population growth, this is expected to rise by 70% to 3.40 billion in 2050. Today’s popular waste management methods that include unregulated disposal into landfills and open dumps are environmentally damaging and considered unsustainable. They pose huge human health risks and emit harmful greenhouse gases responsible for climate change.

Building resource efficient cities that prioritize responsible production, consumption and waste management is crucial for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, and boosting shared social and economic prosperity. In order to achieve this, transformational action on the part of citizens, municipalities and businesses is fundamental and involves operating integrated systems that are efficient, sustainable, and socially supported.

In Kenya, the National Environment Management Authority, Kenya (NEMA) has set goals to achieve approximately 80% waste recovery in its vision 2030 agenda. In its strategy towards achieving this goal, NEMA has been formulating policies, legislations and economic instruments to help reduce waste quantities while inculcating responsible public behavior on waste management among individuals and businesses. 

In support of these efforts, Sanergy through its waste management service arm City Fresh has developed an integrated waste management solution that supports municipalities, corporates, restaurants, agricultural pack houses and agricultural open markets to manage their waste. Our solution is centered around improving urban waste management practices by moving towards the circular economy. Taking on a closed loop full value chain approach, we have developed a logistics network that collects all waste, and safely removes it, transporting the non-organic waste to recycling partners and the organic waste to our organic waste recycling facility for treatment and upcycling into clean energy in the form of biomass briquettes and valuable agricultural inputs such as organic fertilizer and insect-based animal feed. ere...