Drowning in Plastic - The State of Plastic Waste Recycling in Uganda
A mountain of plastic waste at the Plastic Recycling Industry
On 18th January 2020, a team from Takataka Plastics visited the Plastic Recycling Industry (PRI) which is the largest processing plant for waste plastic in Uganda. This company is affiliated to Coca-Cola. At PRI, waste plastic is transformed into flake products which are mostly sold to foreign markets. These are then used to manufacture a range of products like polyester fibres (a base material for the production of clothing, pillows, carpets, etc.), polyester sheets, strapping, or back into PET bottles.
From a distance, one can easily see the vast mountains of waste plastic at the premises. Trucks move regularly to this place to offload plastic collected from different parts of the country. Young men and women clad in their coveralls are seen working at the premise. Their work include offloading the plastic, sorting it according to type and color, washing the plastic and transferring it to the processing plant. At the processing plant, the plastic is shredded into flakes that are then packaged ready for export or local use.
The largest market for the flakes was China. However after china closed the doors to importation of waste plastic, Uganda’s main market became India. Business with India is in a limbo after the Indian Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change passed a notice shortly on October 3rd 2019 prohibiting the importation of all types of plastic scraps. According to the ministry official who declined to be named, the ban applies to plastic waste of “all kinds and in all forms”.
The implication after India banning the importation of Plastic
With the ban on waste plastic by China and India, prices for the waste plastic will drastically reduce. As such many people in the informal waste plastic collection sector will run out of business (unemployment). Also, the accumulation of waste plastic in landfills and water bodies in Uganda will exponentially increase.
However, there is still HOPE. Besides Takataka plastics, companies like PRI are exploring the opportunity in transforming the waste plastic into reusable products. This will pave way for increased recycling in Uganda.
Who are the other players in the recycling industry?
Besides Takataka Plastics and PRI, there exist a number of small and medium sized plastic recycling entities around Uganda. These include both the formal and the informal recyclers. Prominent among formal recycling companies is Resintile EA Limited, which makes roofing tiles from a combination of HDPE and sand. The equipment used by such formal recycling companies is mostly imported and costly. The informal recyclers often use rudimentary approaches to make products like pavers and blocks from waste plastic waste.
The civil society organization have also come on board to address the issue of waste plastic. GIZ for example has partnered with KCCA and PRI to boost plastic recycling in Kampala.
Why isn’t more plastic waste being recycled in Uganda?
Product manufacturers prefer packaging their products in new plastic due to the quality and low costs associated with the supply of plastic. Recycling is an expensive venture. The biggest cost in this sector lies mostly in the equipment cost. For example, an industrial extruder costs more than $100,000 (370,000,000). For such an amount, product manufacturers rather continuously procure for new plastic for their products.
The Takataka Plastics Approach
Takataka Plastics envisioned circumstances around the plastic recycling sector in Uganda early last year and devoted to embark on development of low cost technologies to recycle waste plastic into products that can be consumed both locally and internationally. The visit to PRI was to a great extent an eye opener to the intern students from the department of Bio-systems Engineering, Gulu University who are currently engaged in developing a washing and sorting line for Takataka Plastics.
The Takataka Plastics approach involves engagement of multiple stakeholders in deriving the best solutions to the plastic waste crisis. Moreover, Takataka Plastics mainly focuses on PET bottles which has low recycling value and was primarily exported from Uganda before the ban. The Takataka Plastics approach is a local approach which reduces on the cost of transportation or exporting waste.
The machines are locally built at 1/20th the cost of importing from countries like the US. This approach is promising for people, profits and the planet.
What is your take on plastic recycling?
““The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it.””
About the Author
Peter Okwoko is co-founder and COO of Takataka Plastics. Prior to his current position, Peter worked as an assistant lecturer at Gulu University. During his tenure at the University, he piloted a PBL (Problem Based Learning) approach in addressing environmental challenges. He implored students from both the faculty of science and faculty of agriculture in developing innovate solutions around SDG 12 and SDG 13.
Peter is a graduate of the Innovative Communication Technologies and Entrepreneurship program from Aalborg University, Denmark. He is also a talent from the UNLEASH 2019 cohort under the SDG 12 track.