[Do not publish] Waste Enterprisers
Revolutionising sanitation and propelling Africa to the forefront of waste reuse
Waste Enterprisers Ltd. (WE) is transforming human waste into renewable fuel for industrial kilns and boilers. Its target market – industrial manufacturers such as cement plants and plastics factories – need cheap fuel to produce their products. WE leverages this energy demand to create an incentive for waste collection and processing, thereby tackling the urban sanitation crisis.
WE’s waste-based businesses completely reinvent the economics that govern waste management. By creating demand for waste, WE triggers action across the sanitation value chain, while the initiative’s “Fecal Fuel” product replaces fossil fuels, thereby reducing emissions of greenhouse gases.
Eco-Inclusive Impacts
Waste Enterprisers makes cities and economies greener. The initiative’s waste-based businesses create a demand for human waste that unlocks profitable alternatives to haphazard dumping. Profits are reinvested back into the sanitation sector for poor communities.
- Treating the waste of over 350,000 people with the One Fecal Fuel facility, relieving entire communities of this diarrhoeal diseases.
- Offsetting emissions from faecal sludge with each plant receiving 500m3 of faecal sludge (FS) per day.
- Processing a total yield of 39Mt per day (4000Mt per year) and tackling the emissions of 4,000 people.
- Generating over USD2 million in annual revenue as well as provide jobs for local engineers, labourers and security personnel.
Partners
Waste Enterprisers has developed innovative ways of reusing human waste with the aim of improving sanitation services for the poor and restructuring the economics of sanitation in developing countries. Drawing on technical support from local and international universities and working with the local municipality, the venture plans to turn faecal sludge into biodiesel, and to dry it and use it as boiler fuel. Wastewater is also being treated for use in ponds to allow fish farming which can provide additional income generation.
Waste Enterprisers Ltd. is the lead partner in the initiative, in charge of managerial oversight and developing social and environmental impact mechanisms.
Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly provides access to land and waste streams, making the development of Fecal Fuel possible.
Wisdom Togobo, Director (Renewable Energy), Ministry of Energy advises Waste Enterprisers on national energy policy and strategy.
The Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology provided students to carry out the initial characterisation of waste streams and the market analysis.