Congo Green Society

Developing countries (Global South) are facing high population increase and high urbanization rates leading to considerable environmental degradation in cities and peri-urban areas. Waste management in cities is a big environmental challenge. The solid waste management is nightmare because it is merely limited to collection and dumping.

This project focuses on organic  and plastic waste valuation. The solution proposed consists in waste triage into organic waste to be used as black soldier fly larvae substrate for animal feeding (poultry, pork and fish) as well as composting for biogas and organic fertilizer production for soil fertility and ecosystem service restoration. The plastic waste is transformed into buildng material (blocks and pavements) by melting and mixing it with sand. The whole community in towns and villages will benefit from the project.

Ecosystem pollution is one othe most global critical environmental challenges of our times. Urban waste is one of the diffuse sources of pollution which has to be tackled before it is dispersed everywhere affecting negatively lakes, rivers, acquifers, oceans as wwell as soils, landascape and even athmosphere.In the Global South governments lack capacity to deal with this environmental problem. In my town (66 km2, ~1 million of people),  most the local gouvernement simply deploys to collect (unseparated solid waste) and just export it to the surroundings in a non-sutsainable manner.   Therefore complementary efforts from the private sector and civil society is needed to create clean and green cities. Although my solution is not new to the World, it will be a very good example of waste valuation. A public-private parternship will be signed with the Mayor to make the pilot initiative  sustainable and scalable to all towns countrywide.  The waste  will be processed and products will be sold to farmers (entrepreneurs, NGOs, etc.).These products will enhance animal and crop production as well as creating jobs, incomes, beauty, ecosystem services and reduce public health problems such as malaria, typhoide, etc. The waste collection in populated qaurters will reduce conflicts between neighbours.

My solution is based onthe reduction, the recycling and reuse of solid waste. A center of waste management from towns will be created. Recycle bins and plastic bags will be disributed to households for collecting separetely organics and plastics. Solid was will be then carried up to the management site. Food waste will be used to grow black soldier fly (BSF) larvae to produce  animal feeds (fishes, poultry and pork) whereas other organics will be decomposed to generate biogas for energy purpose. Residues of BSF production and compost will be collected as manure for soil fertilzers. All these products will be packed up and sold to farmers on the local market. We will need recycle bins and plastic bags, a transport mean (transport) and a hangar. Other accessories such as containers, block/pavement forms are needed. Consumables include water and sand. A biogas digester will be constructed. The project will be implemented in two phases. Phase I will deal only with BSF and compost production and Pahse II will integrate the biogas production plus the plastic waste processing.

My solution serves the whole community. It will serve urban residents and rural area residents all together.

Urban people will benefit for aesthetic environment, public health, jobs
and food while the peri-urban/rural people will gain jobs and income,
energy, food and terrestrial ecosystem services as well as
cost-effective building material. The human pressure on forest and protected areas (national park) will be reduced due to emergence of more productive farming activities as well as renewable energy (biogas) as an alternative to wood and charcoal.

Waste is better and sustainably managed if it becomes a resource. This solution is dedicated to value waste material by generating feeds for livestock and organic fertilizer for crop production as well as renewable energy (biogas) for cooking at commercial scale. This waste value chain will create a new industry and generate jobs and revenues both in towns and agricultural areas while cleaning the environment and preserving forests against deforestation. In Congolese towns, tons and tons of waste are produced every day without any clear management practice. This ends in anaesthetic landscape and ecosystem degradation. This is not acceptable.

My selection is justified by the fact that no waste value chain has ever been implemented in my town. This concept note intends to explore the existing ideas already tested abroad to evaluate its feasibility and acceptability in the community in South-Kivu. The business model has to be also tested and provide information on its scalability accros the country and even in the Global South.

My solution is innovative in my space because it builds a value chain for urban solid waste avoiding the costful management pathway of just collecting and throwing waste. This is unprecedented. The waste management model that I want to introduce to my place will be catalyze the local economy because it will enhance food production at low-cost. The success will very quickly be adopted by other green economic investors in Congo. The market will not have difficulties for adopting the products because they will be cheap and easily available in opposite to now when they (animal feeds and fertilizers) have to be imported.

My solution has not yet been implemented. But in one year, it will serve almost thousands of households and in five year hundreds of thousands of households.

The following indicators will be used to measure the progress and success:

1) The increase of the number of tons of waste collected and processed accordingly

2) The increase of the quantity of processed animal feeds produced and sold

3) The increase of the compost quantity produced and sold

4) The increase of biogas volume produced and sold

5) The increase of pavements and building blocks produced and sold to the local market

15 people are already involved in project planning.

My team is made of degree qualified Agronomists, environmentalists, socio-economists and business administration trained people. Workforce is available and contacts to local authorities are made to be allowed to intervene in the waste management sector.

The approach for inclusivity is to get involved men and women as well as urban and rural people in the workforce. The affordable price of the products will allow poor and middle-income farmers/others to get benefit from the solution.

I am applying to solve to benefit for a funding award for the implementation of my solution project but also for being part of the solver community which allows me to exchange experience and success stories with members.

My organization is still young and need to grow up. Therefore technical assistance and capacity building are needed to meet the goals and serve more people.

The organizations I would like to partner with are NGOs having the same mission and  working in the same field, MIT faculty or Initiatives and Solve members.