The solid waste crisis is growing by the day.

With the growth in consumer culture, more waste will keep on being generated.

Just observe the growth of trash in your kitchen bin and you’ll realize this.

For most of us, solid waste is a nuisance to get rid off as fast as possible.

True – it does bring its fair share of challenges such as stinky smells, disease-causing rodents among others.

But now that it’s a growing challenge, might it also harbor some opportunity?

RECYCLING

Perhaps the first step is to test our ability to see things in a different dimension. 

And that’s what recycling helps us to do.

It helps make trash a raw material – a factor of production.

Think of a manufacturing industry.

It sources for raw materials from its suppliers – which most of the time costs a fortune.

Small wonder commodities are expensive.

But just imagine if that same expensive product is made from a raw material available in trash – waste.

What does that entail?

Low cost of production because of low cost of raw materials aka waste.

PICTURE THIS

What do we do with the spent batteries in our phones and laptops?

Well, we dispose them – but where to?

With soaring rare metal prices coupled with dwindling reserves in the minefields, could the next frontier battery be a recycled one?

The contents of lithium ion batteries – which run our phones and computers – can be summarised with one word: COBALT

But cobalt is a metal that shows up with all sorts of paradoxes.

First, since batteries will incrementally become significant, isn’t it surprising that this metal isn’t as expensive as gold?

Secondly, isn’t it surprising that the world’s largest cobalt producer is also one of the most poorest nations on earth? – the Democratic Republic of Congo.

This article isn’t an emotional roller coaster journey but a check on reality.

If precious metals aren’t helping our continent (Africa), then we might as well find novel ways of recovering them and building an industry right here on our Africa soil.

And this is where trash turns to cash.

Now this is not an imagination built up in Nirvana…it’s reality.

Small wonder organizations like WEEE Centre are making a difference in recycling E-waste.

But still more could be done in this sector.

Imagine reclaiming lithium, cobalt, nickel, manganese, vanadium etc from spent batteries and using them to make batteries and other products.

It’ll take looking at waste differently if we’re to achieve this but it’s possible.

But waste recycling shouldn’t just be a reality in the metallic front.

PLASTICS

I once stumbled upon an initiative by BASF chemicals (one of the largest chemical companies in the world)

They have designed a plastic product that is degraded or composted by microorganisms.

In other words, this product can be thrown into the rubbish bin and disappear after some time.

The shocking thing is that this product has been on the market for 2 decades.

If so, why has it performed poorly – at least in our part of the world?

Probably because recyclable plastics are expensive to manufacture compared to non- recyclable alternatives.

If that’s the case, how could R&D be spearheaded to search for cheaper ways of manufacturing degradable plastics?

Thankfully, nations like Kenya have made it a bit easier by criminalising single plastic use bags.

Perhaps it should be a wake up call to innovators in this space not to always look towards China and India but to come up with affordable degradable plastic solutions for our context.

Better still, nature itself offers us a world of alternatives.

Cellulose and chitin, two of the most abundant naturally occurring plastic-like materials are available us.

Look at the plants, algae, creatures such as crabs, beetles and lobsters just to mention but a few.

Cellulose extraction from hyacinth, weeds, pineapple waste, sugarcane bagasse are options that have been tried and tested fairly successfully.

Perhaps the reason why we’re still wallowing in this synthetic plastic menace is because we are not looking keenly at the trash around us.

We’re not making good use of it.

But trash doesn’t just consist of plastics and metals.

It’s also made up of rotting waste…

Yeah…the type that stinks to the high heavens…

But beyond the stink, rotting stuff punctuates our world with opportunities in energy and food.

COMPOST AND BIOGAS

Rarely are these two words placed side by side – but they should

Compost helps us grow healthy food while biogas helps us power our world sustainably.

However the catch is that both of these useful commodities could be derived from rotting matter in our trash.

In other words…same raw material, different products.

Put the rotting matter in a heap and supply it with oxygen and water and over a couple of weeks or months, it converts into rich compost.

Compost boosts soil fertility not only through addition of minerals but carbon in the soil.

Likewise, take the same trash, pour in some water, throw in some fresh cow dung then seal the semi liquid stuff in a drum for a few weeks.

After a while, rich biogas is produced which could be stored or used for cooking, lighting etc.

In other words, waste is not a waste but a raw material useful for production.

IN CONCLUSION

I end as I started.

There’s a solid waste crisis staring us right in the eyes.

This waste isn’t just trash but a road to cash.

So who’s upto the task?