A Community Based Organization (CBO) has embarked on recycling of organic waste from Kibuye market to ensure traders operate in a clean environment.
Through the venture, Kibuye Market Waste Management CBO targets to use the organic waste to make fertilizer and charcoal briquettes.
Simon Meso, the organization’s founder, said waste management remained a big challenge at the market which is being reconstructed to absorb more traders.
“We realized that 80 percent of waste at the market was organic and saw an opportunity to make a living out of it by recycling the waste which was an effective way to manage it,” he said.
“We came up with the initiative to clean up the market and collect the waste – not to dispose of, but to turn it into products that can be reused,” he added.
To come up with the products, he said, they use organic waste like banana leaves, vegetable remains, kitchen refuse and animal waste.
Due to high levels of unemployment in the area, the group has brought on board youths to collect the garbage at the market and its environs. The program, he added, has been extended to the informal settlements where they offer training and capacity building to youths and organizations to take up waste management as an income generating activity.
“We also train students and other organizations on waste management to champion the need to keep the environment clean,” he said.
The CBO, he disclosed, was in the process of constructing waste recovery centers within the city to manage other components of waste including plastics, metals and glass.
Through partnerships with other organizations, the CBO, he added, has rolled out sensitization forums within the community and markets. This, he said, will help to demonstrate effective waste management and disposal mechanisms including use of available bins dotted across Kisumu City.
Joyce Nyawira, one of the founding members of the organization and a business lady at Kibuye market said that Covid-19 had restrained them from some of their activities such as voluntary community clean ups.
“Some of our members relocated, forcing us to start sensitization afresh and so new members were recruited to fill the gap,” Nyawira said.
Nyawira urged the County Government to support the CBO in the various waste management interventions to keep the city clean.
“Waste management is everyone’s responsibility. We therefore call upon sponsors, donors and anyone who would like to support this great initiative to help attain its full potential,” she reiterated.
By Francis Ochieng and Evangeline Mola
