Death of crucial knowledge and crucial life skills including positive mentality and attitude

Increasingly, solid waste & effluent management has become a tough challenge for Kenya owing to many factors including increasing population due to urbanization and lack of awareness on why waste management is important and should be done right.

Undoubtedly, the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of waste management remains an important consideration given that poor management of the waste remains a threat to environmental pollution and the attendant global warming and climate change dilemma.

For instance and increasingly, poor solid & effluent waste management has led to poisoning of soils (leading to poor crop harvests), pollution of rivers and other water sources and eventually pollution of our seas and oceans.

The reality of these huge challenges forced policymakers in the country to devise the environmental management & coordination (waste management) regulations 2024 gazetted by NEMA (the national environment management authority) in Dec 2024.

The regulations provide a national framework for managing waste & a guide or principles on how manufacturers and producers can be responsible or pay for the pollution cost and also a commitment that the producers /manufacturers should embrace and adopt cleaner production methods & systems and to also segregate the production waste at source.

Further, the sustainable waste management (extended producer responsibility – – EPR–) 2024 regulations require producers /manufacturers to be responsible for  products entire life cycles including for disposal.

One of the key features of the regulations is waste segregation and management.

It has been explained that waste segregation should commence soon right from domestic levels to industry.

…. Consequently, waste collectors will be required, by NEMA, to provide three waste bags/bins … Green ones to collect organic & biodegradable waste; blue for recyclable; & yellow for clinical (other hazardous materials) or mixed recyclable waste.

In other parts of the world black bags /bins collect general recyclable waste and red, brown, or purple bags /bins are meant for specific hazardous waste including non biodegradable farming or textiles waste according to different, localized waste management policies.

Often times, nevertheless, it has been explained that our country has very progressive policies and laws which, unfortunately, are never fully or effectively enforced, adhered to, followed or implemented.

In our country, for instance, consumer education & enlightenment on the above policy & subject is yet to be provided by the concerned authorities.

And in my interactions with people and waste improperly packed or disposed, i have sadly noted the sheer ignorance that is evident when people relate with waste.

Currently, many home owners and managers never bother to separate waste even where a space exist where organic waste could safely be disposed. As always general rule, the managers heap organic waste such as potatoes, vegetables, green & ropes bananas peels/ left overs among others with diapers, plastic bottles, perfume cans and even soil & charcoal ash (got from sweeping compounds) and even used sanitary pads in plastic garbage bags or makeshift gunny bags or in open spaces outside home compounds (irresponsible and illegal dumping is an increasing eye sore and crime)….

And woe to the community when marauding & hungry dogs descend on the bags and tear them apart for people get doses of terrible combinations of litters.

I guess things would get a bit better if the authorities concerned made concerted efforts to enlighten citizens more on how and why garbage handling and management matters.

People would also understand that parts of garbage is valuable and can be recycled or be sold for recycling purposes.

The advantages of proper garbage and waste management practices including recycling ought to be highlighted in innovative ways.

For instance, chiefs’ and ‘Nyumba Kumi’ barazas could be used as occasions for reaching citizens on this topic. Proper know would most likely change the citizens attitude & mentality toward the garbage issue.

People should be encouraged to continue forming residents associations that could, through education initiatives, tackle different issues including waste management and the ills of littering in residential areas.

The current garbage, both solid and effluent, situation in residential areas in most urban and rural residential areas is very pathetic to say the least.

And this calls for drastic remedial measures even as people continue planting more and more trees in the efforts to reclaim our universe from the adverse results of pollution & global warming …… 9