Waste management remains a major problem in Africa and several other continents around the world. From careless littering of plastics, aluminium products, metal wastes, organic food wastes, nylon wastes, and more lying around over 90% of places people live and commute through daily to work, the saturation they’ve created results in negative effects both to the health of the local populace and the environmental care of the vicinities surrounding the droppings.
In the light of this lack of efficient waste management solutions, some African entrepreneurs ranging from Nigerians to Kenyans, Namibians, and more, identified business opportunities in the collection of these uncared for and unwanted wastes. They strove to collect as much waste products as possible, in a bid to keep their localities tidy and also to build a large business.
Amongst these entrepreneurs, many have recorded success, some are still in their early stages, and a few, as some businesses in every industry, have failed.
While there are successes and failures in every industry, this article focuses on 5 exceptional African entrepreneurs in the waste management business, who haven’t just done a great job in the recycling industry, but have built a successful business in the process.
See Also: Top 3 Recycling Business Ideas And Opportunities In Nigeria
1). Bilikiss Adebiyi Abiola – Wecyclers, Nigeria 
This budding Nigerian entrepreneur was an ex-IBM employee for 5 years. A graduate of Fisk University & Vanderbilt University.
After working with IBM as a software engineer, she proceeded to MIT’s Sloan School of Management to acquire an MBA. During this period, she had a project in her MBA class on recycling, and her team was named Wecyclers.
They explored the opportunities in the Nigerian recycling industry. Understanding that Lagos state alone in Nigeria produced up to 10,000 metric tonnes of waste everyday and had a population of over 16 million people, she realised that the recycling industry in Nigeria was only waiting to be fully tapped by the most enthusiastic entrepreneur with the guts to take on the industry and build an empire out of it.
With a vision to harness the waste management industry to its full potential, she quit her job at IBM and returned to Nigeria to setup her recycling business.
Since the start of her business, she has garnered both local and global attention from the likes of CNN, The Huffington Post, and have secured strong partnerships with companies like Unilever, DHL, NBC, CC-Hub, Oracle, Lawma, and many more organisations.
See Also: How To Start A Lucrative Plastic Recycling Company In Nigeria
2). Daniel Paffenholz – Takataka Solutions, Kenya 
In Nairobi, Kenya, less than half of the total trash makes it to the popular dumpsite, at Dandora. The remaining wastes about 2.5 million households generates, end up unaccounted for.
With the diverse waste generated by millions of Nairobi houselholds, Daniel Paffenholz launched a waste management company, Takataka solutions, to battle their waste issues. To achieve this, Daniel came up with an innovative waste management solution to promote the recycling and combustion of trash generated in the state.
Takataka, which means “trash” in the Kiswahili, made waste collection affordable for the residents living in various parts of Nairobi.
Since the state of Nairobi is resident with about 3.5 million people, and has only about 8 trucks to collect the trash, the extremely large number of wastes that cannot be collected from households, creates a large business opportunity for private companies to fill in.
Takataka took advantage of this, and has grown a successful business that has about 6,000 homes as their clients. They focus more on lower income neighbourhoods, and collect trash within regular intervals in three separate bins for organic, recyclable, and residual waste. 80% of the waste collected from their clients are recycled, while the remaining 20% are sent to the dump.
Takataka is one of the most successful waste management companies in Kenya, and are expanding their recycling model into testing the resulting batches of fertilizer in farms around the country.
3). Andrew Mupuya – Yeli, Uganda
Due to excessive environmental pollution, the Ugandan government placed a ban on plastic bags, sparking an ingenious idea to manufacture paper bags in a 16 year old Ugandan boy. His name? Andrew Mupuya.
Andrew founded Yeli, Uganda’s first paper bag company, in 2008. At the time he founded the company, his parents had both lost their jobs, and he was still in secondary school.
To start his business, he raised $11 by selling 70 kilograms of plastic wastes, and borrowed another $3 from his teacher. As he raised the capital, he visited various kiosks and small businesses to know if they had any need for paper bags.
After discovering there was a huge demand for what he was intending to manufacture, he raised off to the internet to learn how to make paper bags, since he had no knowledge of it.
Today, Andrew’s paper bag company has grown exponentially, with him producing at least 20,000 paper bags a week, and acquiring a long list of clients ranging from supermarkets to restaurants, medical centres, multinational companies, and the likes.
His achievements have aided him in winning the $30,000 Anzisha Prize, only awarded to African entrepreneurs who startup businesses to solve problems in their local communities, and has gotten him featured on prominent international media outlets like CNN, How We Made It In Africa, Forbes, and the likes.
See Also: 7 African Millionaires That Started Their Businesses With $250 Or Less
4). Gys Louw – Rent-A-Drum, Namibia
Rent-A-Drum was envisioned and started in Namibia in the year 1989 by an entrepreneur and visionary named Gys Louw. The family-run business was first thought up by Gys, when the municipality stopped collecting waste. He realised he could get into the waste management business on time to collect garden refuse before any other business took over the opportunity.
Through the years that have passed, Gys Louw has built Rent-A-Drum to be the largest waste management company in the country. His company collects many types of wastes ranging from mining waste to medical wastes, household wastes, and also manages residential, commercial, and government contracts.
He has, through his business in Namibia, built a first of its kind material recovery facility where about 2000 tons of recyclables are sorted and baled, has over 70 vehicles collecting recyclables from over 200,000 households every month, and has over 23 years, setup several other waste management companies covering various waste collection and management categories in Namibia.
5). Lorna Rutto – EcoPost, Kenya
Lorna Rutto, quit her job with a bank in 2009 to pursue a career in waste management. She founded a company named EcoPost, which focused on recycling plastic wastes collected from garbage cans and dump sites in Nairobi, to manufacture fencing posts.
These posts are used in houses and forest reserves to fence the properties, and are getting increasingly popular.
With over 10,000 posts made, over 500 jobs created, and over $150,000 in yearly revenue, her small business hasn’t just turned into a great income stream for her, but has also helped her save forests spanning over 250 acres, which would have been used otherwise, for construction work around Kenya.
Her small business success has gotten international recognitions with her winning several awards like the Bid Network Nature Challenge Award, SEED Award, Enablis Business Award, and several others.
See Also: 5 African Entrepreneurs That Went From Broke To Billionaire
What are your thoughts on the short stories of these inspiring African waste management entrepreneurs? Let me know by leaving a comment below.
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Awesome to see the hard work being put in, great read thanks guys
Thank you for reading, Louis.