How NMS plans to tackle garbage crisis in Nairobi

Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) is banking on an increased number of garbage contractors, casual labourers and enforcement to end the perennial garbage problem in Nairobi. 

Nairobi continues to reel under heavy mounds of solid waste but NMS is looking at the triple strategy to have the problem put under control by matching waste generation to collection.  

As part of the plan, NMS targets to increase garbage collection to 3,200 tonnes daily by next year.

Currently, the State agency is collecting 2,800 tonnes of garbage generated in the city daily against a target of 3,000 tonnes every day.

Nairobi generates 3,000 metric tonnes of waste in a day but this increases by about 20,000 tonnes every year as the population rises.

According to NMS boss Mohamed Badi, they have managed to increase daily solid waste collection from an average of 1,800 tonnes last year to 2,800.

However, the aim is to further increase the daily collection to 3,000 tonnes this year and then 3,200 tonnes next year by roping in casual labourers in the collection process as well as the services of street families.

“We intend to increase the tonnage of waste collected for final disposal per day from the current 2,800 to 3,200 by the time the next financial year begins,” said NMS.

In the meantime, NMS has engaged solid waste contractors who are assisting in garbage collections in the various city estates as well as increasing the number of garbage collection trucks to 205.

The contractors are expected to pick garbage at gazetted points across the 85 wards with the number of collection points depending on population size, hence the amount of garbage.

They have also contracted additional casual labourers as well as collaborating with the National Youth Service to increase daily collection and disposal of solid waste.

NMS has also designated 35 new garbage collection points across the city, a move aimed at ending the proliferation of illegal dumping sites in Nairobi which has been blamed for frustrating the fight against solid waste in the capital.

Waste generated in Nairobi mostly ends at the city’s largest dumping site, Dandora Dumpsite, which is already reeling under the weight of excessive solid waste holding over 1.8 million tons of waste against an expected capacity of 500, 000 tons.

In order to relieve the dumpsite, NMS is in the process of setting up a waste regeneration plant in Ruai, Nairobi to recycle garbage generated in the city.

To feed the plant, material recovery facilities (MRFs) will be established across Nairobi as a way of promoting circular and green practices in support of a circular economy model in the capital.

The recovery facilities will ensure there are designated waste collection points that allow for secondary segregation, recovery, reuse, up-cycling, and recycling of waste generated in the capital.

The NMS boss pointed out that the waste recovery facilities will be in each of the 17 sub-Counties in Nairobi to serve the waste generators within the sites located.

Some of the MRFs will also be within public premises such as parks and markets while others will be sited within local communities.

According to the plan, six of the material recovery facilities will be constructed during this financial year and another seven in the following fiscal year.

The re-engineered dumpsites are aimed at methane gas collection intended for electricity generation where collected residual wastes will be turned into the gas that will be used to power electricity generating plants.

NMS also plans to finish construction of a sanitary landfill for final disposal of collected waste as well as complete construction of central composting facility.