 Ta-da! Welcome, Kareyubu Bak to Y254 TV We had taken a tiny small little break but we are back with another conversation still on spot on tech with Tommy Lee who is the coordinator Takataka Solutions Kareyubu Sana So let's just start from that point here Konza you have an interesting name People say that it came out when there was the Men in Black movie and there was this Tommy Lee John so everywhere I went they used to say Are you Tommy Lee John? I was wondering why Yeah, it's from that movie So I was okay At least nili kwa sawa niki fikiria So tell us what do you do? What does Takataka do? Okay first of all I'm not really coordinating Takataka We are partnering with Takataka I'm coordinating Vosh Church I'm coming up as the youth leader and we are working together to create awareness on plastic waste management So we see a lot of that really It's like once you start seeing it it becomes a reality Growing up like Kenya to Meza you just grow up in Unaanda Shule Unaanda Job but when you start really seeing that kunata wa natupa plastic everywhere then you start seeing the people throwing bottles kwa gari Rapa zinje nini and I used to think what can we do about this and I thought I was too small to do anything because you need like a lot of money you need a lot of donors you help clean the country So we say let's just start from where we can from our background, from our backyard So we started from the church because we had like a youth group So to Kanza to collect plastic waste and then it continued until we started partnering with a few more people from other churches and then we partnered with New Life Mission and then we partnered with Taka Taka and so all we do right now is really create the awareness of plastic waste management and we also collect from households those who need collections we are able to go to their homes and collect but we are piloting only in Kisumu at the moment So let me just get this this is a garbage forgive me for thinking like that it is a garbage collection go ahead forgive me for thinking like that but I'm just thinking is this a garbage collection a company or it's just plastic collection I don't know what you call it So to get the idea take garbage collection alafu ikwa sorted from the house that's our vision that if Kenyansona is a sort garbage from the house then for us we are only collecting plastic we don't do the organic waste why? because a lot of people are already using organic waste people at home use it to feed the animals najuwa kamaukona dogi or akati any food in Mibaki you give them if you have like the peels and all that people who have cows goats all that they give them so unless you kotao and then now you have no place to take it but what we are doing is most urban dwellers have garbage collection but we are focusing on low income areas so where they can't afford to pay for your takataka kukolektiva so we are not focusing on organic waste we are focusing on low income areas they just throw it outside nawaki tupa it disintegrates and becomes basically manure or something but plastic does not it's inorganic so it remains there then they burn it nawaki choma the smoke is really really dangerous actually I'm thinking there are people who died from plastic waste smoke bakafkiri ane covid is really really dangerous to their lungs then in the neighborhood in low income areas they burn all the waste when I katu takataka pamoja then maybe 10-20 people when I share your dump your home then they just light it up when I burn kila kitu mostly if you find naive in the villages in Bayasana because they still have space trees and all that but in urban areas people then it has a real problem because now it's affecting the whole neighborhood now I have gotten it now you've gotten it it's not garbage collection but we are probably working close with those who do garbage collection let me just pick it from that point here you're working close with those who do garbage collection once they pick up garbage people go sort it out we do that that's where we partner with takataka now takataka doing garbage collection they're collecting everything even in Nairobi here the one of the largest companies doing that and we actually thank God that they came to a view to partner with us so for us we just collect and then we take it to them and we don't do the sorting of organic and inorganic we only collect plastic that's what makes our awareness campaign interesting we go to homes we talk to you we say ok wukuna plastics wukuna waste jaribuku zi sort eka plastic kando eka zo zingine kando we'll pick the plastic so we're encouraging them to sort from home so once you pick the plastic where do you take them oh we have oh good question so this is how we've structured ourselves we're using the church so we've come up with we call it a church hams which brings us to like tech and stuff so it's not like a very high tech thing but we call the church as hams so each church any church it doesn't have to be a church anybody who wants to do this can become a hub anywhere in Kenya so we just take gunias and then people come together and then they collect from the households then in Ekawa a specific church once it's in that specific church we take it to a main hub we have like a main church which has like a bigger space where we do the sorting of plastic but the plastic itself is not sorted so you sort it into various fractions like pair, church, DPE LDPE longer Greek okay Zao I said in Ekawa to sort it no no no we will want to learn we will want to know what those different fractions are yeah so what happens grace is after we've picked it from this mini hubs we call them mini hubs can be a church can be someone's home like una place into Amiamua a make a space where people can collect plastic wapele keapo then we have a motorcycle guy who just goes and collects every week and then takes all these to the main hub where the sorting is done once it's sorted we take it now to Taka Taka because they are the guys who now do the recycling and everything else amazing I'm still taking you back to the different types of plastic I'd want to know and I'm sure someone else will I'm sure Val will want to know okay the shocking thing can you imagine Ipepa bagi the Jualawan it's recycled actually I had no idea until we got into the whole thing wuki bae rice in that pack it can be recycled yeah so it's not only like the bottles when people say recycling they think it's only the bottles so the bottle is clear it's a pet it's the most common one it's number one iyasoda, maji it's recycled a lot in Nairobi I don't know anyway I'm confused okay you know I like the word I don't know sorry for cutting me short but recycling what do you mean do you mean that Ipepa I'm done with taking this soda I have thrown it you've picked it you go wash it rebrand it then bring it back put it on the soda sell it back to me who do you mean by recycling okay in waste management kuna reduce kuna reuse nare cycle so reduce is really reduce the production because like in Nairobi to not produce over 200 tons of waste every day 20% in plastic so actually in 400 tons 20% in plastic in Kisumuwa we're doing this it's 300 tons per day of plastic to get the idea tan moja nigari like premio so imagine premios 300 is a waste so when we come up with this we first of all want people to reduce that and after reducing it nare use so reuse is what you're saying when a bottle umayosha somebody is using it again we've also encouraged people to do that if you know people who can can reuse your plastic you can connect with them and then when I reuse to your chupa instead of throwing it but recycling really is changing the whole structure in a katwa into small pellets and then in a kwa nare use a new product can be a bottle can be a chair can be a table anything oh thank you continue continue so so piti yama pet nizi normal bottles the sodas that I think is easily understood there's HDPE high density easy a way to ikubukani tu ni pet heavy high density polythene yama high HDPE ni yanyi na kanga inaitu waka suku ama yanyi watuna wakuna cooking oil yama easy yawangan zito kidogo mafutaki dogo it's heavy kuna high density it's also recyclable you can reuse it wanaeza recycle yanyi wanga wibuyu easy watu zayelo yellow easy most of the time watu akuna so that one's high density on HDPE then kuna low density HDPE which is polythene yama iso rapazza zashuga ama rice ioni LDPE it can also be recycled do takataka are amongst the first people who recycle by the way nireya sanakwa recycled but they are doing it and then we have PVC but PVC is not recyclable PVC pipes iso watuna zi yawanga but azikwi recyclable so far so is only two waste watuna pelaka let's say and then there's watu watuna ita pep something like pep it's watu situna ita yogat so it's the one inakaba yogat cups and inakaba pure food foodi ki kwa rap tilewki bachapula kwa supa and then it has plastic chini that plastic ni the same naile nina nating neza yogat and that one's also recycled it's a different type it's softer than HDPE oh wow so those are the various fractions so at the main hub uksha collect plastic zote then we have people who are working their sotas and so the sotas and waste pickers wananzakuzi sotapo every week then they can put them in different fractions then they are packed kwa magunia too then once we reach a certain tonnage like half a ton or a ton we take it to taka taka oh wow so I think to understand what you mean is that people collect then taka taka does the recycling they're reducing they're using okay taka taka does the recycling we also do the reusing and reducing so our main aim by then is to create awareness like what we're doing now and thank you guys for having me today is any youth anywhere in Kenya anazafanyaikido and they can just our goal is to see plastic waste to reduce all over the country so anybody can just do it simple and you don't need a lot of money or a lot of connections or whatever if you know anybody who's doing recycling wuneza collect plastic kumpeleke instead of kuitupa kwa kwa ground nama kui kui choma burning is the worst thing as I told you kuna watu wame kupa it's really really bad but many people have no idea that it can even cause lung cancer so what inspired this vision it's interesting really for me it was I was wondering can I create any change in this country as young people as a youth I like this because this TV is about youth and you sit down and you wonder okay what can you do to make a difference and I saw everybody doing something you go you find people in politics people in this area people doing good like even you you're doing a great thing by the way so when I looked at this and I saw a problem and I wanted to be a solution to the problem and I also saw that for instance the church has been having a very bad image in Kenya lately and what if the church can come up and do something in the community to clean it up and I think that can also make people to understand like the church is actually working the talk you know and I think that's what the young people want to see they also want to see Christians who are actually doing something in the society than just in the church and preaching and all that so I wanted to do something practical also to ensure that we take care of the environment which I think is a mandate God gave us amazing so where does I'm trying to see where does tech come in okay normally when people hear tech they get so scared okay Sisi wanayutatuna shida but when you talk to the older generation of tech they're just scared and like now with the AI coming people are like what is that remember when 5G came they said it was the end of the world so so for us we are minimizing the complication we use simple tech now let me backpedal to as a church already I also lead the media department so we use Facebook social media Facebook mostly for the church we use Facebook and we get at least 12,000 views every every Sunday so we create awareness through that page of the church that's just to tell people collect plastic usichome all that so we use and you can use that anybody watching can use their their social media to create awareness our hashtag is together we clean the country so they can just go there and say together we clean the country and do something online secondly for collections can you imagine we're just using WhatsApp so we have a group and then anybody who wants a collective with the plastic when you have a smart phone anatuma to message I have this plastic kujenim collect anatuma photo and then we get to see the photos and then our motorcycle guy goes and picks the plastic it's so simple and it makes work easier and then wale awana smart phones they are able to connect just through the phone SMS with our representatives in the mini hubs and then they are able to collect so we're using simple tech just the normal ones the social media Facebook Instagram TikTok WhatsApp and that's what we're using and using the photos to create the awareness secondly we've been thinking about the future developing an app and this app can be able to help people to you know what kind of plastic waste they have connect with all the waste collectors that's what we really want to do in the future because we want to spread on after the pilot in Kisumu maybe we'll come to Nairobi then we connect with all the waste pickers so if you're staying in one estate you can just go to the app we say I want to Danyana collect this area it connects you because how many needs to connect the waste producer and those who are collecting the waste amazing so in your own assessment how effective has the program been very we have actually collected at this particular time almost 600 kg more than half a ton of plastic waste here in Kisumu and we just started in January so we are projecting this year yeah yeah so we are projecting that in five years we should be able to collect at least 300 400 tonnes of plastic but we can do this alone really grace that's why I'm here today to call upon Kenyans and all the youth it's not about us really it's not that we are the ones who want to collect all the plastic in the world if you can collect plastic wherever you are and it reduces the waste you can join the movement of just cleaning Kenya anybody who can do this especially the leaders research shows that many people throw waste because there are no leaders who are telling them at Nimbaya and even the leaders are throwing the waste themselves so we can stand up as young people and do something about it so far we've reached 300,000 people through our social media various accounts and pages so we're still looking forward to reach at least all Kenyans whatever you are to that this is a problem that's why I appreciate you guys for having me today we are able to reach very many people today so that they know that plastic waste is dangerous amazing amazing so what is the expansion what is the expansion plan look like so we have two ideas one idea is we're thinking of expanding within Kisumu first Kumbuka if you go to the Nema website and you'll find that Kisumu statistic of plastic waste is missing there's no statistics so we have Nairobi all this they've done research Uku, Sana, Sana but Kisumu is still behind so we want to expand in Kisumu to create that statistic so that people can know at least in Afa Nikaivi and waste is being washed to the lake Victoria which if you read right now the fish production may reduce animals eat and when it floods that area floods then plasticiote Naoshwatera to the lake it's really bad in Kisumu but we're looking also at moving to Nairobi at a point mostly because Nairobi has structures and we believe we can create more awareness in Kenyan Zima since it's the capital city within Nairobi and that's our next phase from next year probably we can move over to Nairobi and start talking to just people and connecting various waste actors together amazing amazing what are some of the challenges you've experienced so far being dirty I'm kidding it's a joke but the main challenges been of course the resources it takes a lot of resources to do this we're still very young we need support whoever can in any way to support us transport systems sometimes the roads are bad sometimes you don't have enough transport systems to collect we only have one motorbike right now and we're thinking of expanding and having maybe a truck and stuff the other thing has been resistance actually which is strange that sometimes you go and somebody has plastics someone has waste high collect they don't collect it and then you tell them okay we'll collect it then they say no we don't want to give it to you until you give us money and then you don't collect it and itchoma so you're wondering what's really the problem with this guy so that's the major challenge we're having now people who are still resistant to the change but even that to us we don't see it as a bad thing because as long as they can hold the plastic it means they are not wasting it anyway we hope they will not burn it those are the challenges we have how many people are you working with alright we have those we work with directly who are about 25 and then we have those we are working with indirectly so they are the people who we have like the main guys who are collecting they are going to the neighborhoods then the mini hubs and have the 25 and then we look at leaders who we partner with like we have church leaders that we are able to they give us platforms like every month and we talk to like various churches like Kisumu it's called Kisumu Kulaji Fellowship and so those ones I can't number all of them but I would say like they are about six or seven main influential people there's the archbishop of our church who has been in many of this shows and I think her name is Bishopuini Owiti and she's also been very active in sharing about this issue and actually we'll be having a few more forums in the near future where we'll be able to share more about plastic waste so these people are volunteers alright they are on payroll the ones we're working with are volunteers the 25 plastic invoids they just volunteers they just say okay we're just going to help and see how we can we can come around this okay can I volunteer? you can volunteer I think you're volunteering already just create awareness that's the most important thing what you can do then it's fine so how we can help everyone of us tell a friend to tell a friend to clean the country to clean the country amazing together we can clean the country amazing unfortunately this conversation has to come to an end but I want you to probably give us a parting shot yes I just want to tell everybody watching that you can be a part of this you're not too small to create a change and just by picking the small plastic you have at home together we can clean the country of Kenya God bless you social media Tommy Lee Osbonowiti down for your PI for the church Vosh Church International okay thank you so much for coming thank you for the talk thank you for your time means a lot yes it's a pleasure to meet you that was Tommy Lee Tommy Lee here is an interesting name talking to us about mergers recycling reusing and reducing waste so in case uko hapo home na una tu patu patu takataka wili una taka please be a good steward of the environment but then again do not touch the devil is coming back with more