dont trash it

Team Leader

emily ithira

Solution Overview & Team Lead Details

Solution name.

dont trash it

Provide a one-line summary of your solution.

Turning trash-cash through sustainable initiative that engages reformed street youths to aggregate and segregate waste which we use as raw material in organic fertilizer, biogas and bsf protein feeds making

What specific problem are you trying to solve?

80% of total waste in nakuru city and surrounding is organic waste , if mixed with other inorganic products , it becomes unrecyclable poison which is dumped in community dumpsite leading to lots of air, water and environmental pollution .

each 1 kg of wasted fruit and vegetables emmit around 0.065 kgs of methane and with around 80 tonnes wasted in nakuru county alone, these too significant to be assumed .

in the neighboring rural set up, we have small scale farmers with average 2 cows or equivalent of waste. each cow produces 90 kgs of methane worth of waste which is left to decompose on fields .with more than 700000 herds of cattle around , these amount of un attend waste is part of major concern .

80% of low income earners in nakuru rural and peri urban areas depend on firewood and charcoal for cooking energy. Of late these has become much expensive and less available considering tree felling bans by local government to curb the increasing rate of desertification

What is your solution?

we are aggregating and segregating organic waste from nakuru city through use of reformed street kids . we buy the waste which we transfer to our processing facility where 30% of waste is converted to bsf larvae protein for chicken and pigs , 30% to organic fertilizer while the remaining 40% is fed to our community biogas unit where locals get affordable refills.

Our processing facility also act as a training facility for locals who want to lean on how to start their small units and use available waste.

In the past one year, we have seen increased interest from local community to own community biogas unit in aggregated of 50households per unit which they feed on aggregated animal waste ,farm waste and local market waste in echariria and kasambara village . having run a pilot with 16 units , where we construct community biogas , give it to community as a credit where the pay for gas per till we recover the construction cost for sustainability we have seen success with average 16trees saved per day .

Who does your solution serve? In what ways will the solution impact their lives?

The challenge we are solving is increased ,none organized dumping in slum based kyoto dumpsite in nakuru, the challenge affect local community and is posed to increase if innovative and inclusive solutions are not developed in time considering the fact that Nakuru is the newest and the fastest growing city in eastern Africa.One major solution before citry reorganization is ,reducing the amountv of waste ending up in dumpsite. Fortunately, 80% of more than 80tonnes of waste generated daily in nakuru is organic waste and more than 60% of these comes from a centralized city food market, we engage youths and women from affected slums in aggregation and segregation of waste as they know the weight of these if left unattended. on solution and opportunity filled, our product makes local farmers and community easy, sustainable and offer safe and quality affordable alternatives to sythetic products. Our organic fertilizer comes hardy in times when 70% of farmers in Gilgil subcounty(beachhead market ) were not able to afford synthetic chemical fertilizer, as a production lead, i worked as an agricultural officer in these subcounty and more than 10,000 soil sample taken recommended use of organic fertilizer to raise humus,curb acidity and provide adaptivity of soil(water retention) amidst extended dry spells.With 90% of farmers having hen on their farms , there are no better solution to promote profitable production than offering affordable and easy to produce protein source. we hope our community biogas system picks up,these will be a game changer in these semi arid area where 80% of locals depends on none available firewood and charcoal for cooking.saving a tree( mostly acacia) in these area, that surround internationally importance l.elementaita IBA is key to biodiversity conservation. To scale,we aim to train and support local farmers to start up their own recycling unit (especially bsf farming unit) & each group of 15 neighbors to own a community biogas

How are you and your team well-positioned to deliver this solution?

we are diverse team

What steps have you taken to understand the needs of the population you want to serve?

I and 4 of my colleagues cofounded Kasambara youth cbo (kyc) in 2020 when there was corona lockdown with the purpose on meaningfully engaging unemployed youths and youths who lost their job in and around Nakuru county.With no financing, we bootstrapped from our saving and were initially holding 2 days per weeks session to train youth on design thinking and social venture development by analyzing the challenges in the community around Nakuru county and developing sustainable venture around opportunities presented by these challenges .I having previous training and experience in innovation and start up development was nominated as strategy development officer and early pilot lead in startups emanating from our cbo. By june 2021 we were able to grow to membership of 50 youths with diversity in terms of age, experiences, academic levels and even passion in life. Through my guidance out of these 50 youths ,we have being able to pilot and develop 8 sustainable venture employing on full time 32 youths. Of interest is "dont trash it" a venture engaging reformed street families in Nakuru city to aggregate and segregate organic waste from the city market. we as a cbo buys these waste which we use 1/3 together with the community to grow black soldier flies for chicken raring, 1/3 of it to make organic fertilizer while the remaining is fed on community biogas plant for green energy production.

Being part of the community, extensive research and design innovation , we are well versed with the impact we are having in the community and sustainable difference we are making .

Which aspects of the Challenge does your solution most closely address?

Taking action to combat climate change and its impacts (Sustainability)

What is your solution’s stage of development?

Pilot: An organization deploying a tested product, service, or business model in at least one community

In what city, town, or region is your solution team located?

Nakuru, Kenya

Who is the Team Lead for your solution?

millicent wangari

More About Your Solution

What makes your solution innovative?

business model: most companies in the world ( locally amiran ) has worked hard to produce rubber tube based home kit biogas which cost around $800 , these cost is much high to the local population who earn around $2 per day and arent able tro pay $55 per month in lpg gas.with us we are able to guarantee them locally available solution at affordable price as you have with no prior investment .smart metering ensure we can lock usage until the previous day usage is rendered to us. where we have excess produce( total production per day -paid usage) we are able to recoup and sell gas to underserved plants thus quick money recovery.

initially we were using offline solution ,we are currently working to infuse 100% digital technology to aid in smooth operations in 2 sectors.1. smart metering to ensure that amount of gas that is used in the previous days is paid for before more gas is pumped out of our systems the following day. 2 digital scanner to help fill in the amount of feed stock(that is added daily) to the biogas to help aid in establishing excess gas stock for resale and for bonus calculations to community when we are exiting after recouping our expenditure based on amount of waste to gas contributed to the period.

What are your impact goals for the next year, and how will you achieve them?

Reduce and at long last elimination of organic waste dumping in nakuru community dumpsite: these will lead to loads of benefit including and not limited to : reduced carbon and toxic fumes emission; reduced water pollution and improved healths amongst local community . Income generation and decent employment creation : so far we have engaged 20 reformed street youths in waste collection and segregation , 58 women have being trained in bsf larvae farming and 10 youths are engaged in community biogas construction . we can scale these model of decent job creation through project growth . indirectly our project improve and lower cost of poultry
and pig production through bsf production and leads to improved farm yields through organic fertilizer production. Green energy , environmental conservation : having run a pilot with 16 units , where we construct community biogas , give it to community as a credit where the pay for gas per yield till we recover the construction cost for sustainability we have seen success with average 16 trees saved per day . We are looking for the support to construct 20 more 10 cubic metres biogas plant to serve 200 households.

Describe the core technology that powers your solution.

under biogas plant design and component , we are unique in that our model matches close to that of cow guts in terms of feeds movement, flora composition and temperature control which gives us average 150% more gas than traditional models of biogas unit . The wall of the unit are infused by bioengineered microorganisms that increase the rate of fermentation .

Please select the technologies currently used in your solution:

Biomimicry
Manufacturing Technology
Materials Science

In which countries do you currently operate?

Kenya

How many people does your solution currently serve, and how many do you plan to serve in the next year? If you haven’t yet launched your solution, tell us how many people you plan to serve in the next year.

so far we have engaged 20 reformed street youths in waste collection and segregation , 58 women have being trained in bsf larvae farming and 10 youths are engaged in community biogas construction . we can scale these model of decent job creation through project growth . indirectly our project improve and lower cost of poultry
and pig production through bsf production and leads to improved farm yields through organic fertilizer production. Green energy , environmental conservation : having run a pilot with 16 units , where we construct community biogas , give it to community as a credit where the pay for gas per yield till we recover the construction cost for sustainability we have seen success with average 16 trees saved per day . We are looking for the support to construct 20 more 10 cubic metres biogas plant to serve 200 householdsn on permanent basis as well as 400 in refills .

we aim to supply affordable biofertilizer to 20,000 farmers in 3 years from the current 2000 we have served so far.

What barriers currently exist for you to accomplish your goals in the next year?

The biggest challenge we have is in scaling.

Waste conversion though it is a profitable and sustainable venture is faced by huge capital requirement. Considering we receive diverse types of organic waste ,,most segregation and plant adjustment cost time and money.

With us engaging reformed street youths, they expect us to buy the whole volume of segregated waste which sometimes supurses our conversion capacity, these sometimes sees us having more bulk waste and things seems not to change soon as population around nakuru is growing quickly .

To curb these and the risk involved in transfer over dumpsite from kioto to our waste conversion unit, we are empowering locally trained women with starter kits and credit (pay as you use biogas plants ) which leads to more waste absorption

Your Team

Solution Team:

emily ithira