dont trash it
we collect organic fruit and vegetable waste from cities mass market through network of transformed street youths which we use for organic fertilizer ,biogas and bsf feed making
Dont-trash-it engages reformed street youths to seggregate organic fruit and vegetables waste from nakuru city mass market. we buy the waste which we transport to our facility as feed material for:
60% of total waste is crushed and transformed into commercial organic fertilizer through a vessel based rapid anaerobic fermentation process that we enhance through native effective microorganisms extracted from local virgin forests in advanced traditional drum culture method.Through these, we are able to get organic fertilizer from fruit and vegetable waste in 5 days.
30% of preselected fresh fruit waste is crushed and fed to our black soldier fly farm which we use to produce protein substitute for chicken farm while the remaining 10% which sometimes rises upto 60% during rainfed farming harvesting season is fed to our community biogas units for supply of energy to us and neighboring community.
30% of our organic fertilizer is given back to young street mothers in a microentrepreneur model who sell these through city road side kiosk.5% is donated free to street groups running community seedlings orchards along cities highway where through use of it act as referral point to potential clients.
80% of total waste generated in Nakuru city is organic,70% of these comes from mass market and is 100% fruit and vegetable waste. When other components are added, these no longer becomes organic waste but poison that ends up in a municipal dumpsite located in a slum neighborhood accommodating more than 100000 households .At these level, segregation and recycling of waste is impossible. once left to ferment , it leads to health hazards ,foul smell, water pollution as well as methane emission to environment which is 20times more contributor of global warming more than carbon dioxide.
Agriculture is backbone ok Kenya economy, over the last 3 years, there have being recorded 100% increase in chemical fertilizer cost which have lead to decreased usage among farmers leading to decreased yield, over all the use of these chemical based fertilizer have being discouraged due to its advance effects in health and soil contamination. with increased advocacy of organic and sustainable food production , there existed a huge supply to demand gap in market for organic fertilizer.
we took advantage of increased waste to bridge the gap of organic fertilizer supply in market.
To do these, we banked on giving a stable source of income to tens of street youths who have reformed from drug abuse and petty crimes who act as segregators of waste at source while those young ladies who were unfortunately rendered young street mothers serves as microentrepreneurs to sell our product.
Small scale farmers: with current increase in price in convectional fertilizers, small scale farmers are at a loss, they cant afford these and their depleted soils cant produce without fertilizers. our organic fertilizer offer long term, sustainable and affordable solution to help them increase their yield in a safe manner that doesnt affect their health(most consume 80% of their produce).
our product have a long selflife and fits in almost all soil types in kenya thus our effect can be help in our beach head production area and far beyond.
local community in the beach head production area also benefit from affordable biogas refill and bsf stock larvae(bsf is free csr) that helps them meet their energy and animal feeds needs.
To slum community living around the dumpsite, we make their air clean , environment foul less and in long learn the heap will grow no larger.
am a trained agriculture entrepreneur .During my internships, i worked in gilgil subcounty where i was serving around 70000 farmers with extension and agribusiness practical training. It is from these period that i learnt the greatest inhibitor of profitable and safe food production in Kenya is fertilizer usage .
I run pilot farmers based home compost making program with over 100 farmers and from the data i got, all of them achieved 40% increased in yields from only organic fertilizer usage. its from these that i set to help hundreds of thousand of farmers who may have no waste or time to compost.
I Started my commercial pilots on dont trash it in 2020 when there were lockdowns and people and products couldnt move out of their region,it was a blessing i disguise as we were able to reach 300 farmers in a cooperative doing kitchen gardens who were able to test our product and 95% were positive about it.
setting our production in an arid area, most of times having excess supply than we need , company determined not to let any fruit or vegetable rot in open, we started bsf farm and community biogas to take care of any excess waste that may not fit or recycling plant and to our surprise they are good complementary to our work without much investment.
- Taking action to combat climate change and its impacts (Sustainability)
- Pilot: An organization deploying a tested product, service, or business model in at least one community
we are through with our r&d and have our products tested in market.we are scaling our production to commercialization and setting initial commercial plant to confirm our results from tests.
- A new use of an existing technology (e.g. application to a new problem or in a new location)
biological fermentation is a natural process that occurs when organic waste is placed in a favorable condition.
however in natural environment, these process is slow and sometimes leads to undeserved environmental impact.dont trash it have advanced these by incorporating natural extracted effective microorganism that are native in area of operation to run a short time effective anaerobic fermentation that leads to transformation of fruit and vegetable waste into organic fertilizer.
our process is rapid due to the fact that we have modified temperature and ph in vessels and are using natural adapting quick glowing microorganism to transform our waste.
These technology , which we have proved is working in small scale has also helped us in enhancing biogas yield from our community biogas plant in our unit
- Biomimicry
- Biotechnology / Bioengineering
- Kenya
so far we work with 25 street reformed youths and young mothers in sourcing of rawmaterial as well as sale of fertilizer.
in pilots we worked with 300 farmers but hope to serve 70000 farmers in the next 1 year through supply of organic fertilizer.
our biogas plant aim to serve 1000 household on scale with 300 chicken farmers benefitting from free bsf larvae for seed pack.
to increase crop yield to 70000 maize farmer in Nakuru county through supply of affordable high quality organic fertilizer delivered from organic market waste .
We measure our impact through amount of crop waste transformed into fertilizer. For every 1 kg saved, Environment is saved 4 kg of co2 equivalent in emission. With these, we are able to measure the amount of ghg emission we are saving the world.
To engaged reformed street population, we measure the income generated from payment and % profit for micro entrepreneurs.
To farmers we measure the increased crop yield which is more equated from the tabulated pilot value of 30% increase in yield with 200 kgs of organic fertilizer bought equal to 1 acre farmed.
To beachhead locals getting refills from us, we measure the average amount biogas bought and equate 26kgs of biogas to 1 tree saved from usage as firewood considering we are in an arid area.
Financing to scale our production from the small working facility to a commercial facility.
Availability of advance machinery to scale , standardize and fasten production process.
Government regulation on big factory set-up
we are a blend of experience , passion and academically diverse team that will aid in delivery of these venture
Millicent wangari: c.e.o and founder, diploma in agriculture entrepreneur graduate with 2 years of experience in farmers training and engagement. having worked with over 70000 farmers in Nakuru subcounty, Millicent brings a wealth of experience in farmers needs and most needed network of farmers who serves as first adopters.
she works in marketing of companies product and micro entrepreneurs management.
john waithaka: lead production and mechanization of the company.with 3 years of on field experience in plant operation, john is instrumental in running our fermenters and mechanizing our operations. He previously worked for 2 years as a waste collector in the city and brings a valuable link to waste collecting and sorting youths and a motivator for them to value the work
Dennis kuria : lead waste collection ,sorting and transportation, a former market loader and friend to reformed street youth, volunteered in a rehab center before starting working with rehab graduate in sport and waste collection. He is instrumental in supply .
Kasambara youth cbo: a local youth organization with 150 youths in farming,so far they provided land and space for pilots as well as acted as first buyers and referral to our product.
As members of the group, we get financial boost in times of low cash flows and affordable (post paid) labor from members who are free.
The strategy development arm of the group has being instrumental in mentorship and support in early piloting .
Mirangine green silver farmers cooperative: they act as first adopters of our product for potato farming with 500 membership. these helps us in market and referral point to other cooperatives
- No
- Yes
street life affect young girls and women more than men in street due to early pregnancies and diseases.
from our interactions with street girls, we learnt that most of them get to early sex and marriages due to lack of food and basic necessities, of 50 we talked with non talked of rape or forced sex.
we believe in providing a safe environment and economical source of funds to them, that's why 30% of our fertilizer is sold in micro entrepreneurs manner where street young mothers get our product and kiosk sell point from where they can sell our produce. All our Nakuru city on call orders are collected and delivered through these kiosk.
we aim to use the fund we get from these to open rural based women micro entrepreneurs(sale agent ) ,from were all our products will be sold from, we are strong believers of empowered women equals empowered society.
and as a fact all our products serves women, be it biogas for safe cooking, fertilizer for more yields and bsf for chicken feeds, in Africa culture, these activities are carried out by women