The uneaten, the unused, the stuff we eliminate and evacuate, that’s waste. It can be a public nuisance and a source of contamination and it is an especially growing menace to the world’s urban centers. For city authorities the world over it’s one of their biggest headaches. Yet both organic and inorganic residues can produce value through recycling. Organic residues contain a wide range of nutrients that can be used to make compost for urban agricultural production. Inorganic residues can be recycled into useful products. This type of recycling helps solve an environmental problem whilst providing income for the urban poor.

On January 18^th, 2005 the final stakeholder workshop was held to discuss the results of a study of waste recycling in Nairobi, with a special focus on the use of manure and organic residues in agriculture. Attending the workshop were representatives of the implementation team (the International Livestock Research Institute, the World Agroforestry Center, Urban Harvest, the Kenyan Agricultural Research Institute and Greentowns) plus staff of Nairobi City Council Departments, national government and civil society organizations who are involved in and concerned with the management of urban wastes. The specific objectives of the original project included the characterization of ecological exchanges of nutrients among different sectors and geographical areas of the city and the value chain involved in economic exchanges of different kinds of wastes between rural and urban areas.

Problems identified which inhibit successful recycling include insecure access to land for composting, poor group management leading to internal conflicts, which prevents taking advantages of economies of scale in waste handling and processing; declining group membership due to the still underdeveloped compost market and the hard work involved in compost production; and a tendency to resort to traditional composting techniques having rejected newly introduced techniques.

Research carried out into the chemical composition of different compost sources being produced in Nairobi indicated that the quality is generally high and there is the potential for a large increase in the quantity being currently produced. Studies of residue markets described a complex we of nutrient flows linking rural and urban areas: some urban livestock producers export their surplus fodder to rural areas, while others use compost they have produced for their own crops. There is also co-composting of local materials (mixing of manure and vegetative residues), which is comparable to what is done in rural areas. Half of the livestock producers use their manure for crop production and some sell or give it away. However, a most disturbing finding was that up to 80% of manure is dumped or burned in public areas. This represents a large economic loss to agricultural producers and a high potential environmental and health cost to the city.

Yet whilst urban manure is largely wasted, rural manure from Maasai pastoralists is part of a flourishing trade, some sold to peri-urban vegetable producers and urban nurseries, but most traded on through the city to rural producers in other parts of the region. In contrast, the production of compost is not yet well established, which probably accounts for its high price compared to manure. The study found that compost producers, who usually advertise and trade their product on site, are unfamiliar with marketing strategy and opportunities whilst potential customers are unaware of compost sources and its high quality. Better marketing skills and wider knowledge could transform this “hidden resource” – only about 1% of Nairobi’s organic wastes are processed into compost – into a major source of income earnings and savings for composters and growers alike.

Box: Improving well-being of Nairobi slum-dwellers through waste management

Kahawa Soweto, a poor urban settlement 21 kilometers from the center of Nairobi, is very dependent on farming. About 50% of the 1,000 households are involved in a mixture of livestock raising and crop production, mostly on public land such as riverbanks and railway lines. A major constraint these producers face is poor soil fertility and two ancillary activities linked to agriculture which are already present in the locality, the collection of domestic wastes and animal manure have the potential to contribute significantly to improved soil nutrition, as well as helping to create a healthier environment, and to generate income. Local people collect cow manure, although the abundance of cow manure in the area is not being maximized. Around 35% is used by local producers, a very small amount is sold, but almost two thirds is dumped or burnt within the village.

As part of village clean up activities, a youth group does garbage collection and separation, earning a small amount of income from sale of organic wastes as compost. The market for compost is still small in Kahawa Soweto. Clearly there is an opportunity here to increase income from both waste and more efficient farming and to contribute to a cleaner, healthier local community.