MADE IN KENYA: Mombasa venture turning plastic waste into water tanks

The venture recycles High Density Polyethylene (HDP), polyethene (PP), Low-Density polyethene (LDP), and Low Linear Polyethylene (LLP). 

According to Jill Industries' Director Arvind Bhudia, they collect plastic waste from landfills and Indian Ocean beaches.

"We collect the waste from different places, we have around 250 collection points in three counties; Mombasa, Kilifi and Kwale. We have beach clean-up activities that we do sometimes, we are aiming to collect the waste before it goes to the ocean, the river or the landfill. That is our main motto," Bhudia says. 

When the waste arrives at their facility in Bamburi, it goes through sorting, cleaning, crushing and extruding. The plastic is then either used to make water tanks or sold to plastic industries as granules. 

The recycling process is enabled by a group of 60 employees, who are trained on how to sort, clean and extrude the plastic waste.

"We train them because most of our employees are from local communities, so we train them for like a week, two or even a month until they know," Bhudia adds.

Some of those working here are Salma Kassim and Katana Yaa. They say the work has helped them run their parallel business and take care of their families, at the same time keeping the coastal region clean by removing plastic from the environment.

"Through this work I have been able to open a salon, employee someone and at the same time take care of my dad, he is the only parent I have," Salma says. 

Jill Industries now recycles between 120 and 150 tonnes of plastic waste every month, and as Bhudia says, their aim is to increase that capacity to 300 tonnes per month. 

"In 2024 we are recycling 120-150 tonnes of waste in a month and collecting around 5-6 tonnes in a day. We are targeting to increase our production from 6 to 10 tonnes in a day. Of course there is a lot of waste which has not been collected, so we need to collect more waste, otherwise it will end up in the ocean," Bhudia concludes.