Uganda like many countries suffers from waste disposal. Thousands of tons of garbage are generated on a daily basis with much of it remaining uncollected.
Efforts to collect these garbage have been put in place, however, the challenges are much bigger than the resources available for the work. Much of the uncollected garbage ends up in water channels creating environmental concerns.
"The outcome of poor waste management is a dirty living environment because even the dirtiest person cleans where he is going to sleep or to sit. So that's problem number one. Two; apart from having a dirty environment around us, that environment can cause sickness, disease and when diseases come, you spend your money to treat yourselves. This money would have been used for many other useful things but now, you are spending it to cure yourself."
Although waste is a danger, several studies have shown that it can be converted into energy. For countries like Uganda which is still grappling with low energy levels, waste can be an answer.
“Companies such as Sugar Co-operations and Kakira Works have demonstrated by investing in technology. they re-use that waste to convert and produce energy which they are selling to the government grid and they are getting sufficient amounts of money.”
In a related development, several environmental based civil society organizations have partnered with the Uganda Wildlife Education Center to launch a campaign to collect baseline data throughout Entebbe Municipality to beat single use of plastics and polythene from homes, schools, and workplaces.
“The challenge of waste management; previously we took up an initiative of Bulungibwansi which the community didn't own well. We wanted to have the schools in and the communities in and establish a monthly day where all of us get involved in clean-up activities." This campaign is supported by WEC and Entebbe Municipal Council, Jain Jordan Institute Uganda, Chimpanzee Trust Uganda, Rotary Club of Entebbe among others.
"If you live in a healthy environment, beat using single plastics, many times when you go to the shop and when you go to the shop you end up with three or four polythene bags. We are saying that we can re-use, refuse, and recycle plastic. If we do that, we would be able to save our environment because plastic takes so many years before it is decomposed."
