Home Lifestyle Environment – Kenya’s First Material Collection Facility Launched In Kajiado

Environment – Kenya’s First Material Collection Facility Launched In Kajiado

by Femme Staff

Environmental preservation and recycling in the country are continuously taking a really good direction with companies like PETCO and the partnerships it is working through. It is also good to see that together with saving the environment, these efforts are also coming with economic empowerment for waste collectors who are running it as a business.

Just last week for example, my colleagues and I were in Mathare to have a word with Julia Njoki, an environmental enthusiast who is running a plastic bottle collection business there. Njoki is working in partnership with PETCO, SHOFCO and Coca-Cola to actualize her dreams of not only keeping the environment clean but also making a living for herself and for those around her.

PETCO partnerships do not end there. The recycling company has launched a material collection facility in Kajiado county in partnership with the County Government of Kajiado and the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA). This facility which is sponsored by PETCO to ease waste collection, segregation and pelleting in the county was built at a cost of Ksh50 Million and will process upto 10 tonnes of PET per day. This will really come through towards sorting the county’s burgeoning waste material.  

The plant has also created employment for 100 locals who receive and sort the PET from various collectors as well as manage the equipment that crush them into pellets. The facility which is a brainchild of a local organization Taka Taka ni Mali Corporative Society, and the County Government of Kajiado through the first lady H.E. Edna Lenku, seeks to ensure environmental sustainability while offering employment opportunities for youth in the county. 

“We are very pleased to launch this important facility that will not only offer environmental sustainability to this county but also offer job opportunities to the youth through our enterprise initiative dubbed “Taka ni Mali”

PETCO Chairman, David Olang’

PETCO Kenya works with 14 partners to mop-up plastic bottles across the country through initiating and growing waste collection and segregation centers. These centers have developed into important innovation facilities as they produce useful items from the waste collected and segregated. 

Some of the partners include; Coca-Cola Beverages Africa Limited, Kevian Kenya Limited, Unilever Kenya Limited, and Naivas Limited. PETCO believes in the collective Extended Producer responsibility. Some of their partners such as Coca-Cola Beverage Africa Limited, committed to make all its packaging 100% recyclable by 2025 and use 50% recycled material in their bottles and cans by 2030.” 

Businesses have been hit hard by Covid-19 and as they continue to come back to life, Coca-Cola through the open Like Never Before campaign partners will support the waste collectors in managing a safe work environment and facilitate in business sustainability. 

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