Nairobi County Charts Path from Landfill to Green Economy with Ambitious Circular Economy Plan
NAIROBI — In a decisive shift from a linear take-make-dispose model, Nairobi City County has launched a comprehensive strategy to transition to a circular economy, aiming to transform waste into wealth and tackle the city’s persistent sanitation crisis. The ambitious plan, unveiled by Governor Johnson Sakaja’s administration, focuses on creating value chains from municipal solid waste by promoting recycling, reuse, and resource recovery at scale. This marks a fundamental rethinking of waste management, positioning it not as a cost burden but as a driver for job creation, enterprise development, and environmental sustainability.
The strategy is built on a multi-pronged approach that seeks to formalize and integrate the city’s vast informal recycling sector. Key initiatives include establishing decentralized material recovery facilities (MRFs) in each of the 17 sub-counties, providing waste picker cooperatives with safety gear and access to aggregation centers, and fostering public-private partnerships for large-scale composting and plastic-to-product conversion. A central pillar is the planned rehabilitation of the Dandora dumpsite into a controlled sanitary landfill with adjacent recycling industrial parks, aiming to recover materials like plastic, metal, and organic waste before any residual disposal.
This transition is about justice, environment, and economics, stated the County Executive for Green Nairobi. We are recognizing the thousands of informal waste pickers who have been the city’s de facto recyclers and giving them dignity, better incomes, and a formal role in a cleaner city. The county is also rolling out public education on waste segregation at source and plans to introduce targeted fiscal incentives for manufacturers who use recycled content, aiming to close the loop by creating stable markets for secondary materials.
The long-term success of this journey hinges on sustained investment, robust policy enforcement, and consistent public participation. If effectively implemented, the circular economy model promises to significantly reduce the volume of waste requiring landfill disposal, lower greenhouse gas emissions from decomposing waste, and spawn new green enterprises in manufacturing and organic fertilizer production. By turning a perennial urban challenge into an economic opportunity, Nairobi aims to set a benchmark for sustainable urban management in Africa, demonstrating that environmental stewardship and inclusive economic growth can be pursued hand in hand. The coming years will test the county’s ability to turn this ambitious blueprint into tangible, city-wide transformation.