Experiences and Challenges of Plastic Waste Collectors in Kenya; A Qualitative Study Among Informal Waste Collectors in Kisumu City, Kenya, 2023

Omom, Caroline and Okotto-Okotto, Joseph and Wright, Jim and Okotto, Lorna-Grace (2024). Experiences and Challenges of Plastic Waste Collectors in Kenya; A Qualitative Study Among Informal Waste Collectors in Kisumu City, Kenya, 2023. [Data Collection]. Colchester, Essex: UK Data Service. 10.5255/UKDA-SN-856990

According to WHO/UNICEF, whilst 91.8% of urban households in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) had access to piped or protected groundwater sources in 2015, only 46.2% had safely managed water available when needed. Vendors provide a key role in supplying urban off-grid populations, with consumption of bottled or bagged water (sachets, water sold in 500ml plastic bags) growing in SSA. Whilst several studies show bottles and bags are usually free from faecal contamination, given that many off-grid urban populations lack solid waste disposal services, when people drink such water, there can be problems disposing of the plastic bags and bottles afterwards.
This project aims to deliver evidence on the different ways that people sell water to off-grid populations and what this means for plastic waste management. We plan to do this in Ghana, where most urban household now drink bagged water, and by way of contrast, Kenya, where the government has banned plastic bags. In this way, we want to widen access to safe water and waste management services among urban off-grid populations, by supporting water-sellers and waste collectors to fill the gaps in municipal services.
Both countries (and many others elsewhere) already have nationwide household surveys that collect data on the food and goods people consume and the services they have. However, as yet, these surveys have not been connected to the problem of waste management. We plan to visit marketplaces, buying foods and then recording packaging and organic waste. By combining this information with the household survey data, we can work out how much domestic waste like plastics gets collected and how much is discarded or burned, ultimately entering the atmosphere or oceans.
In Ghana, we will also survey informal waste collectors in urban Greater Accra. We want to find out how much these small businesses support waste collection and recycling across this urban region (particularly plastic from bagged water), so we can help government identify gaps in waste collection coverage. We also believe highlighting the important role of small waste collectors could lead to greater business support for such collectors. We will also evaluate whether community education campaigns to encourage domestic waste recycling reduce the amount of waste and plastic observed in the local environment. Such campaigns are currently pursued by several local charities with support from the Plastic Waste Management Project.
In Kenya, where water is usually sold in jerrycans rather than bagged, the jerrycan water often gets contaminated. We plan to find out whether this jerrycan water is safer under an arrangement known as delegated management. This involves a water utility passing on management of the piped network to a local business in slum areas, so as to reduce vandalism of pipes and bring water closer to slum-dwellers. We will compare water quality in areas with and without this arrangement to see if it makes the water sold safer. We also plan to bring water-sellers and consumers together to find and test ways of reducing contamination of water between a jerry-can being filled and water being drunk at home. Rather than imposing a solution, we want to work together with vendors and consumers on this issue, but there are for example containers designed to keep water cleaner that we could explore.
Through these activities, we thus plan to develop evidence on different strategies for water-sellers to deliver safer water to people lacking piped connections, whilst managing plastic waste at the same time. In Ghana, this involves trying to increase recycling and waste collection for bagged water, which is relatively safe. In Kenya, this involves trying to reduce contamination of water sold in reusable jerrycans. Alongside our household survey evidence on how domestic waste is managed in slums, this should help governments plan waste and water services in poorer areas of Africa's expanding cities.

Data description (abstract)

This qualitative data set comprises transcripts from focus group discussions with informal collectors of plastic and general waste in Kisumu, Kenya. The study aims to determine the extent to which informal waste collectors facilitate waste separation and recycling in off-grid neighborhoods in Kisumu. It also aimed to assess the impact of recycled plastic prices and international policy initiatives on businesses in the water sachet recycling chain in Kisumu as well as other barriers to informal waste collector businesses. A similar set of FGDs with waste collectors in Greater Accra, Ghana, is archived separately. Specialist plastic waste collection businesses are almost non-existent in Kisumu, so the study recruited general (mixed) waste collectors at different points in the supply chain via a grassroots waste collectors’ association. A total sample of 32 collectors were identified via this route within Kisumu City. These were segmented into three broad groups: a) Waste Pickers, b) Intermediate Traders and finally, c) Apex Traders. The Waste Pickers were defined as informal enterprises that mostly pick wastes directly from the waste generation sites such as households, streets, or waste dumps. The intermediate Traders were defined as the relatively more formal enterprises collecting waste from the pickers, carrying out some level of processing and selling the processed waste to apex traders. The Apex traders were then defined as the more formal enterprises purchasing the wastes from the intermediate enterprises and then selling the waste to recycling industries, mostly located in Nairobi. Two focus group discussions were held with two groups of waste pickers and two groups of intermediate traders, with a single small group discussion then held with two apex traders. Focus and small group discussions consisted of open-ended questions on business establishment, business history, waste collection operations, and enablers and barriers to waste collection.

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