Politics and Society
Ugandan graduate shuns jobs for garbage
Tonny Nsubuga has occasionally turned a deaf ear to advisors who often ask him to apply for high-end jobs. As Alex Taremwa writes, ambitious Nsubuga confesses how trash brings cash to his wallet as he gears up towards employing at least 200 people by the end of this year.
Published
8 years agoon
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Alex TaremwaYou have probably done it, or at least seen someone throw an empty can of soda or mineral water in non-gazetted points of waste collection without care of its dangers to the environment.
Poor waste management and disposal has partly contributed to soil exhaustion, environmental degradation, and climate change. Most environmentalists agree that burning trash would not be a better solution to its management.
“Waste emits methane and other greenhouse gases that are polluting and can generate fires, which also emit very toxic gases,” explains Abel Banegu, a Mbarara-based environmentalist.
“Incinerating (burning) plastics also produces toxic substances such as dioxins which contribute to acid rain while the ash may contain heavy metals and other toxins that are dangerous to the soils,” Abel Banegu, Environmentalist.
Banegu adds that incinerating (burning) plastics also produces toxic substances such as dioxins which cause air pollution and can contribute to acid rain; while the ash may contain heavy metals and other toxins that are dangerous to the soils.
However, such a mess is an opportunity for Nsubuga, who has geared himself to show the public how lucrative garbage is. After his graduation in 22 January 2016, the 27-year-old resident of Mukono, 18 kilometres east of the Ugandan capital, Kampala, did not hit the streets to search for a job. He, instead, started a company- Garbage Friendly and Waste Management, Mukono, which deals in garbage collection, decomposing organic material and recycling the non-organic waste.
Nsubuga posits his idea from climate change, a global problem which has affected farmers most. He thus decided to contribute to conserving the environment while making money through managing wastes. This, he says, is a long-term venture to which he has committed his life.
“In Africa, we don’t know how to manage waste. We have wilfully polluted the environment and, as a result, our soils are depreciating fast,” Tonny Nsubuga
“In Africa, we don’t know how to manage waste. We have wilfully polluted the environment and, as a result, our soils are depreciating fast. That is why I decided to venture in this area,” he says.
Nsubuga, who is currently employing at least 20 youths—both skilled and unskilled in the areas of environmental conservation and waste management — adds that poor waste disposal has also significantly contributed to the deplorable hygiene in urban areas; this has resulted in increasing outbreaks of diseases such as the typhoid fiasco that usually hits Kampala city.
What Nsubuga Does With Garbage
In Mukono district, where his company currently operates, Nsubuga enters into a contractual agreement with clients to manage their waste at a monthly fee of Shs20,000 (USD 5). So far, he has at least 100 clients to whom he gives three garbage collection containers; for decomposable items, plastics and metallic wastes.
He uses a truck to collect the garbage from agreed points which include hotels, hostels and private homes. He then transports the trash to a gazetted dumping site located in Katikolo where the garbage is manually sorted and the decomposable lot is piled separately.
Most often, water is added and the garbage is left to decompose further for a period of two to three months to make organic manure.
The garbage is then filtered using cages to remove gravel and bones that failed to decompose. The decomposed material is then packed in sacks and sold to farmers as manure at Shs150, 000 (USD 45) per tonne.
The plastics are then sold to beverage companies where they are cleaned and recycled. Besides the financial benefit that Nsubuga is reaping from his initiative, waste management enhances sanitation most especially in urban areas, reduces the spread of diseases and cuts on the carbon emissions that accrue from burning the garbage.
In addition, with better technology, energy in form of biogas can be generated from solid waste. Nsubuga adds that Uganda, a country ailing from youth unemployment, has an opportunity to create thousands of jobs if the government invested heavily in waste management and if the youths changed their mind-set and stopped lining up for the scarce white-collar jobs.
“Garbage, I can say, is gold. There is money in this work that people shun and it doesn’t require a lot of skills but hard work, determination and readiness to get a little bit dirty,” he says.
Challenges
Nsubuga however faces financial constraints that have limited his access to equipment and ability to produce several bi-products from garbage such as charcoal and by-products.This is in addition to rampant corruption as local leaders award service delivery contracts to their preferred or privately-owned companies that often do a terrible job.
Future Prospects
Nsubuga hopes to build a waste-recycling plant to produce finished products rather than selling raw materials at a cheaper price. He is seeking the cooperation of the Ugandan government to educate citizens about the dangers of poor waste management, better methods of waste disposal and the benefits of these methods on the environment.
“Jobs are few but jobs are many. What makes one different is their creativity. Money is in where you put your hands, in the things that we neglect,” Tonny Nsubuga.
Nsubuga challenges fellow graduates to think outside the linear job-searching paradox and, rather, work to create solutions to societal problems. “Jobs are few but jobs are many. What makes one different is their creativity. Money is in where you put your hands, in the things that we neglect,” he concludes.
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