Mixing household and industrial wastes at the source has been mentioned as one of the main setbacks that has been facing Kiambu County government in its efforts to dispose waste, especially from urban areas of the vast county.
County Chief Environment Officer Mr Andrew Kimani has as a result said that all Kiambu residents will soon be required to separate waste before they are collected from their homes for disposal.
Mr Kimani who was speaking at Kang'ooki in Thika on Thursday during a regular inspection tour of the ongoing construction of Kang'ooki modern dump site said that lack of separation of recyclable waste and non-recyclable one was the main reason why many recycling companies were not being attracted to waste coming from the county and elsewhere in Kenya.
"Separating waste is a very expensive affair and many recycling companies would rather import 'clean' waste from outside the country. This is very ironical because Kenya has a major problem disposing her own waste. Here in Kiambu we want to start the trend and completion of this dump site will mean a whole new experience of how we even collect waste from homes," he said.
He said that almost all household and industrial waste are recyclable if it could be well disposed and separated at the source.
"You find that the big headache that the county is facing is polythene bags disposal. But if these polythene bags can be separated from other household wastes, there are many polythene recyclers who would readily come for them. Similarly, other household items that can easily decompose can be a good source of farm manure to local farmers," he said.