Dow invests in Mr. Green Africa to boost waste picker economy and flexible plastic recycling

20 Jan 2022 --- Dow is furthering its partnership with Kenyan recycling company Mr.Green Africa (MGA) by investing in its series B funding round in what Dow says is a “first” in addressing critical waste management gaps in Africa.

At full scale, the investment is expected to create approximately 200 more direct jobs, impact the lives of 5,000 waste pickers and engage more than 250,000 consumers in separation at source programs. 

Dow first began working with MGA in November 2019 as part of its Project Butterfly initiative, which works with non-profit organizations and local communities in the region to help tackle poor waste management through education, clean-ups and innovation-focused initiatives. 

Adwoa Coleman, Dow’s Africa sustainability and advocacy manager for packaging and specialty plastics, tells PackagingInsights the project has “shone a spotlight” on MGA’s business model, which has proven successful for collecting and recycling rigid plastic. The plan is to extend this model to flexible plastics.

The investment follows grant funding for MGA’s pilot project, which demonstrated early success in collecting flexible plastics, experimenting with various recycling techniques, and empowering local waste pickers. 

Financial details of the investment have not been disclosed. 

Incentivizing marginalized waste pickers 
MGA seeks to boost environmental standards in Kenya through economic empowerment in local communities.

Waste pickers, who collect trash in exchange for small sums of money, are offered higher, stable incomes, as well as other added benefits like safety equipment and masks.

MGA provides waste pickers in Kenya a living wage, which boosts recycling rates.“This, in turn, creates pathways out of poverty for these individuals, while simultaneously creating a positive environmental impact by establishing trading centers that allow them to bring plastic waste in for payment,” says Coleman. 

“In creating a mechanism for this waste to be sorted and processed at recycling centers, our partnership has made closing the loop more effective, particularly for hard to recycle materials like flexibles.”

The mass production and reliance on single-use plastics and lack of proper waste management infrastructure in countries like Kenya place a heavy burden on local communities, for whom unemployment is high, while landfill pollution poisons food and water supplies. Workers often turn to waste picking for employment, usually for meager wages and in hazardous conditions.

Rigid to flexible 
A key part of MGA’s mission is to incentivize the collection of flexible plastic waste, such as sachets and carrier bags that are usually worthless for waste pickers due to the lack of necessary recycling technology. Instead, pickers rely on rigid packages like PET bottles.

MGA is experimenting with a number of new recycling techniques to aid the conversion of flexible plastic waste into valuable resources, including chemical recycling processes. 

“Many companies continue to fall trap to the mindset of a linear ‘take-make-dispose’ system – where natural resources are extracted, transformed into products and eventually disposed of. 

Instead, we need to shift our thinking and treat plastics as the valuable resource that they are – one that’s too beneficial to be lost to waste,” says Coleman. 

Dow expects the partnership to enable approximately 90,000 tons of plastic waste to be recovered over four years and recycled into new packaging applications.

Yesterday, Circle Economy warned world leaders are missing an opportunity to combat climate change by failing to implement circular economy strategies that reduce virgin material consumption.Roughly 4,200 metric tons of waste is produce in Nairobi each day alone.

An example for industry 
Coleman says the investment in MGA should serve as an example for other major packaging players to begin partnering with and trialing programs throughout Africa. 

According to the World Bank, in Kenya’s capital city Nairobi, an estimated 2,400 metric tons of solid waste is generated every day, 20% of which is plastic. 

“For companies looking to make an impact on the plastic waste issue, we – as a collective business community – need to challenge the notion that we can’t fix the problem because we think we can’t change the existing systems. Innovative recycling solutions take –imagination and a long-term vision,” says Colemnan. 

“Consumers can buy recycled products and drive demand, while corporations can invest in new solutions and scale innovation by partnering with like-minded organizations (such as MGA) who are driving progress in local communities and providing a new life for used plastics.” 

App collection and African expansion 
One of MGA’s central offerings is the doorstep collection of household waste, organized through an online app. Consumers can separate their plastic waste before scheduling it for MGA collection from their doorstep, then process it through the plastic recycling system. 

This solution aids the flow of valuable waste material in Kenya, where no mandatory legislation exists to separate waste at its source – something that seriously hinders recycling streams. 

The investment in MGA is one of a series of initiatives by Dow to improve environmental standards on the continent. The company recently announced a partnership with NGO WasteAid to find and fund local startup innovators that can reduce plastic pollution flooding the river Nile in Egypt. The project is specifically aimed at stemming the flow of flexible polyethylene trash entering the river and ending up in the Mediterranean sea.

By Louis Gore-Langton