Recycling for briquette-making, Nairobi, Kenya

Two thousand tonnes of solid waste is generated daily in Nairobi, Kenya, of which only 40% is collected and disposed. Recycling some of this waste to manufacture briquettes for cooking fuel and heat not only contributes to lessening the environmental burden of poor waste management, but also generates opportunities for employment and income, whilst creating a viable alternative to commonly-used cooking fuels, such as wood charcoal and kerosene.
Urban Harvest has recently been working with a youth group, SOYIA, on a project designed to encourage a greater manufacture, purchase and use of briquettes, primarily as a fuel for cooking.
SOYIA is comprised of 20 young people, seven of whom are women, who have gathered together to address the issues of poverty, unemployment and environmental health in their neighbourhoods through the opportunities provided by recycling. The group works to collect and sort organic and inorganic waste. Following on from a previous project on waste management undertaken with this group, Urban Harvest begun collaboration with SOYIA on this new project in early 2007 to identify sources, markets and training for sustainable briquette manufacture. The NGO Terra Nuova, Kenya Green Towns, the University of Nairobi and other private and public sector groups were brought in during the course of the project to provide various technical expertise.
Briquette-making is not a new idea. Down the centuries people have used ingredients such as cattle dung, sawdust, charcoal dust and waste paper to create solid lumps of fuel, primarily for food processing. When traditional cooking fuels have been unavailable or too expensive people have sometimes had to rely on inadequate or even unhealthy fuel forms, such as burning plastics, which have the duel disadvantage of not only being potentially dangerous to health, but also make it unfeasible to cook some forms of traditional and nourishing fare which unfortunately require a cooking time of many hours. Briquettes can provide a more adequate and environmentally-sensitive alternative source of fuel for people with low income.
The project has allowed the purchase of three briquette pressers, a paper shredder, drying rack and store. Experimentation and surveys have indicated that the briquette with the most satisfactory burning time is made from a combination of charcoal dust and waste paper. With a burning time of over three hours this allows traditional Kenyan meals, such as githeri (a mixture of maize and beans) to be prepared by households. Training in marketing, networking and running the enterprise were integral to the project, as were considerations about sourcing raw materials, surveying potential customers and finding the optimal combination of materials to produce the best briquettes. The tangible benefits of this project have made it attractive to young people and, through scaling-out initiatives, there is also a lot of interest from young women's groups for future involvement in the enterprise.
SOYIA has currently sold half of its 600 briquettes and is expecting interest from local groups such as schools and supermarkets. New orders are already being taken. For the future, the possible impact of fuel briquettes on climate change and reduction in the emission of greenhouse gases needs to be taken into consideration. Also, as briquette-making is a relatively new phenomenon in Kenya, there is need for further research on the most appropriate type of ovens to maximize the benefit of this type of fuel.
In the meantime, briquette manufacture is providing vital income to young people, is contributing to improved access to affordable and satisfactory fuel and is helping to lessen the environmental burden of inadequate waste management.