Turning plastic waste into sustainable growth: Driving Circular Economy in Kenya

Waste management, especially of plastic waste, can be a huge challenge in countries of the Global South. Ecopost, a social enterprise based in Kenya, has made it its mission to address this challenge. In partnership with Borealis, Ecopost uses an innovative business model to collect and recycle plastic waste, create jobs, and contribute to a circular economy.

In this interview with K-MAG, Lorna Rutto, Founder of Ecopost, and Markus Horcher, Director Sustainability & Public Affairs at Borealis, explain how they are working together to improve waste recycling in Kenya, how it is recycled and transformed into new products, and the positive changes the initiative has already brought about.

Can you tell us more about Borealis' partnership with Ecopost and how it aims to address plastic pollution in Kenya?

Lorna Rutto: Kenya is facing huge challenges regarding poor waste management, chronic youth unemployment and deforestation. Ecopost has established a business model which addresses all these challenges by driving a circular economy via collecting and recycling plastic waste through a replicable and scalable model, while at the same time creating jobs for operators, plastic waste collectors, and distributors.

Markus Horcher: Borealis and Ecopost share a common vision: stopping waste leakage into the environment and enhancing circularity for a positive socio-economic and environmental impact. As a result of this shared vision, the two companies have agreed on a collaboration. Through its Borealis Social Fund, Borealis finances Ecopost's activities, boosting waste recycling in Kenya and promoting a circular economy in alignment with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Borealis specifically supports capacity building, training and engaging more waste collectors, as well as formalization of their work by funding entrepreneurial start-up kits for the youth and women groups.

How did this collaboration come about?

Rutto: I presented my vision of an Africa free from poverty and the success story of Ecopost at the 6th AUSTRIAN WORLD SUMMIT, organized by the Arnold Schwarzenegger Climate Initiative. The summit has a specific matchmaking session in order to bring together interested parties, which was a fantastic opportunity to connect to stakeholders we normally do not have access to.

Horcher: I also joined this conference to scout for new projects for our Borealis Social Fund.

I was fascinated by Ecopost’s approach and Lorna’s vision, in particular as Borealis is co-founder of Project STOP where we develop and implement a waste management infrastructure in Indonesia – I could immediately see the potential match to collaborate. I contacted Lorna after the conference and subsequently we jointly worked out how Borealis could best support Ecopost to drive circular economy in Kenya further.

How is the waste recycled and what new things are produced from it?

Rutto: Ecopost converts post-consumer waste into environmentally friendly plastic lumber, WPC ("Wood Plastic Composite") and pellets. The plastic lumber and WPC are used for products for the building, construction and transport industries e.g., fencing applications, road signage, outdoor applications like planter boxes, outdoor lights or benches. The pellets are sold to plastic manufacturers supply chain to be used for other consumer plastic items such as dustbins, buckets, and garbage bags, thus closing the circular economy loop. 

How have circumstances already changed thanks to the initiative?

Rutto: Ecopost’s business model is to work with youth and women groups from marginalized areas who collect, sort, and prepare waste material for production. Most of them are women from the lower economic cadre in society with no other alternative sources of income. They are the most important people in the waste recycling supply chain. However, they are normally exploited by agents and middlemen who do not compensate them appropriately for the waste. This makes the already marginalized waste collectors more desperate, impoverished and hardly able to make ends meet.

Borealis' contribution has catapulted Ecopost several years ahead of where it would have been in its efforts to ensure the waste collectors are better compensated, to empower vulnerable youth and women and to put a dent on poverty.

Horcher: The Borealis Social Fund has enabled the initiative to establish a unique community engagement program. Youth and women groups are trained and provided with a buy-as-you-use start-up kit that includes a smart mobile phone, a weighing scale, a shredder, an agglomerator or a baler. These machines are locally fabricated. They add value to the waste collected thus increasing the waste collectors’ revenues while ensuring Ecopost and other waste manufacturers get plenty of feedstock.

Rutto: So far, thanks to the support from Borealis, 20 groups with an average of 20 members are already benefitting from the project. The initiative is training 400 youth and women who are expected to graduate by end of August 2023. The initiative is keen on sustainability and has set guidelines and preparations for the beneficiaries to ensure they grow to their fullest potential.

Can you share any future plans or projects that Borealis and Ecopost are working on to further promote a circular economy in Kenya (or other countries)?

Horcher: Borealis is fully committed to transform from a linear to a circular economy. By 2030, Borealis aims to have a capacity for circular products of 1.8 million tons, ramping up from a current capacity of 150,000 tons. Borealis will also continue to drive Project STOP in Indonesia, which was initiated in 2017 by Borealis and SYSTEMIQ. After successful implementation in three cities, Project STOP has started the expansion across the entire Banyuwangi Regency aiming to provide waste collection services to 2 million people, keeping 25,000 tons of plastic waste out of the environment each year.

Rutto: In the next 5 years, the joint Ecopost and Borealis initiative aspires to prevent around 63,600 tons of plastic waste from leaking into the environment. The initiative aspires to recycle over 500,000 tons of plastic waste per year by 2030. By recycling the plastic waste to manufacture plastic and WPC lumber, the initiative will provide suitable alternative material to timber thus saving trees. Every ton of plastic lumber saves 1.1 tons of trees. The partnership will therefore save over 10,000 acres of forest by 2030.

The initiative plans to engage an additional 150 plastic waste aggregators in 30 counties across Kenya to its community engagement program in the next 5 years. One aggregator can collect plastic waste from approximately 1,000 waste collectors. The project will therefore be improving income securities for over 150,000 waste collectors.

People in Kenya will benefit from the positive socio-economic and environmental impact, such as cleaner and healthier cities, reduced deforestation, and income opportunities. This will put a dent on poverty and move the Ecopost and Borealis initiative closer to its complementary mission: to achieve a zero plastic waste future and a circular economy.