Kenya could unlock an estimated Sh91 billion in additional economic value by investing in waste collection, recovery and recycling, with industry players warning that limited processing facilities are preventing the country from turning discarded materials into a major source of jobs, business opportunities and economic growth.
Packaging Producer Responsibility Organisation (PAKPRO) Communications and Partnerships Lead Corrine Muriuki said the country was yet to fully benefit from the commercial value of waste because recycling infrastructure remained inadequate.
Speaking on Radio Generation on Wednesday, Muriuki cited projections in Kenya’s national circular economy plan, which indicate that increased investment in waste recovery and recycling could generate an additional $700 million in economic value.
The opportunity comes as Kenya produces an estimated 22,000 tonnes of waste every day, much of which is not collected, recovered or recycled, leaving valuable materials unused while increasing pressure on the environment.
Despite the scale of waste generated across the country, recycling remains limited. Some estimates put Kenya’s recycling rate at about four per cent, while Muriuki cited a rate of 10 per cent, pointing to differences in the figures and the categories of waste covered by various assessments.
The circular economy plan identifies investment in five sectors as a potential source of more than $700 million in additional economic value, with the opportunity also expected to contribute about 0.5 per cent of Kenya’s gross domestic product by 2030.
Muriuki said the country needed more capital, better market incentives and supportive policies to help recycling businesses expand and make the industry more competitive.
“It's still an untapped area, and with the right policies in place, the right market structure, the right market incentives, which is currently what we are working toward, then you're able to grow a more competitive regional recycling industry,” Muriuki stated.
She explained that setting up and running recycling facilities requires substantial investment, making it difficult for the industry to depend entirely on fees collected through Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) schemes to finance its growth.
Kenya introduced the Sustainable Waste Management (Extended Producer Responsibility) Regulations, 2024, requiring producers to take responsibility for managing their products and packaging after they have served their intended purpose.
The regulations put the polluter-pays principle into practice by requiring producers to play a role in handling waste generated by their products. They also provide a framework for producer responsibility organisations to coordinate the collection, recovery and recycling of discarded materials.
Muriuki said these organisations work alongside recyclers, waste aggregators and waste entrepreneurs to recover materials before they are dumped in landfills, helping return them to productive use.
PAKPRO deals mainly with packaging waste, including plastics, glass and other consumer materials, while other organisations focus on electronic and hazardous waste.
However, access to recycling services remains uneven across the country, with much of the existing infrastructure concentrated in major urban centres, including Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisii and Kisumu.
The limited spread of recycling facilities means that many areas lack the capacity to collect, sort and process waste, restricting the amount of material that can be recovered and supplied to businesses for reuse.
Muriuki said extending the infrastructure to all 47 counties would help expand the industry and increase the amount of waste recovered for recycling.
“If you scale that up across the 47 counties, that then would actually be what contributes to the growth or scaling of that part of the recovery and recycling infrastructure,” she said.
Expanding recycling facilities beyond major towns could create opportunities for small businesses, support waste collection enterprises and generate employment across different stages of the recycling process.
It could also help establish stronger markets for recovered materials, allowing businesses to use recycled resources in production rather than relying entirely on new raw materials.
The United Nations Environment Programme has also identified investment, changes to regulations and new business models as important factors in helping Kenya move towards a circular economy, in which resources are kept in use for longer and waste is reduced.
The government is also developing its circular economy policy framework, with consultations on the National Circular Economy Strategy and Implementation Plan 2026 focusing on recycling, resource recovery, green jobs and the development of markets for secondary materials.
Muriuki said achieving these goals would require cooperation between the government, manufacturers, businesses and consumers, alongside better waste separation and compliance with environmental regulations.
She noted that the success of recycling efforts would depend not only on the availability of processing facilities but also on how waste is handled at the point of disposal, including whether different materials are separated to make recovery easier.
Through its Malisafi campaign, PAKPRO is promoting the message that discarded materials can retain economic value when they are properly collected, sorted and processed.
The campaign seeks to encourage a better understanding of waste as a resource that can support businesses and livelihoods instead of being treated solely as material for disposal.
Muriuki called for greater investment and stronger cooperation among stakeholders to expand recycling capacity, reduce environmental pollution and build a competitive industry capable of turning waste into an economic resource.
With Kenya generating thousands of tonnes of waste daily, expanding recovery and recycling infrastructure could help the country address its waste management challenges while tapping into an economic opportunity estimated at Sh91 billion.