New operations in Mityana, Uganda
The saying that perseverance pays could not be more true for this particular story. We have been trying to get an opening to the western part of Uganda but for the last six months had failed to get any good links. But because we have a big operation and supply network within Kampala and the central part of Uganda people have started noticing us.
So it was not at all surprising when a gentleman was introduced to us that claimed he could help deliver the west to us. Our initial meeting went well and he promised to start work right away.
Our goal is to have a supply network on the route between Kampala and Kasese. This gentleman is from this region and he said that he understood our business. He asked for a couple of days which he could use to get us our first contact. He was true to his word and a few days later he called inviting us to go visit the supplier he had found in Mityana.
This town is located in the central region of Uganda, north east of lake Wamala with the drive taking approximately 2 hours from Kampala. We sent one of our colleagues to go and confirm the location and the suppliers as is our procedure for all new suppliers. And the report was good. We arranged to go back a few days later with the full team to start the recycling program.
As a town just like most other townships in the country, landfilling is the only alternative at this point in time and maybe for the foreseeable future when it comes to getting rid of waste. This being a fact does not mean that we stand by and let the beautiful nature get destroyed. Miytana town council ranked 13th in the national census for most populated towns in the country (source: 2014 NPHC - Main Report). Waste to Green can only estimate the population to be above 100 thousand people living in this municipality.
Our drive was a little longer than initially anticipated as we were with the company truck. But on arrival to the site you are welcomed by the smell first before the people. This site is the municipals only recognized waste damping site. It is set in a beautiful and serene land scape. The area so green that it makes me wonder why they would choose such a beautiful place and turn it into a to rubbish damp area. But no sooner has this thought crossed my mind than the company vision.
The site is big with all types of waste contained within the hips. Every where we looked, there was rubbish
After a few pleasantries, we set our team to work. Our goal was to teach the local the principals of separation of waste. We would educate them about the various types of waste and how to properly look after the waste.
First looks can be deceiving, when we arrived at the site all we could see was piles of garbage without any organization. But when we started working we saw a pattern of how the garbage has been offloaded. The site was accessible from the front to the back with a road and a place where offloading trucks could turn around. This was a marram road but on this day it would not be a problem getting in and out as it was dry.
We started working around midday. Our first operation was to remove as much plastic as we could from this site. This is because as a company our strength is in plastic material reclamation. The goal was to start a paper, polythene (kavera) and plastic reclamation program on this site. We enlisted help from members of the community that needed work for the day to assist in this operation. By late afternoon we had managed to collect enough material to fill a 7.5 ton truck. Stock was loaded, people were paid for a days job and the team got back on the road to deliver the reclaimed plastic material to a processing plant in Kampala.
This was a successful introduction day. The people in this area are motivated and ready to work with Waste to Green to clean up this landfill. Waste to Green has committed to continue working with this community to ensure all the other recyclables are removed and taken for processing. Waste to green will be hoping that the people show as much enthusiasm for all the coming visits as they showed during the opening day of this program. We will keep you posted.
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