SMEs digest: Innovators use food remains to make charcoal briquettes

Dar es Salaam. Budding young entrepreneurs based at Madale on the outskirts of the city are investing in foot leftovers like ugali and fruit peels to fabricate charcoal briquettes.

Considered to be a source of clean cooking energy, charcoal briquettes production from such waste was introduced in the area as a Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) by a group of three persons. Today, the group is made up of ten young entrepreneurs: three young men and seven young girls.

The project does not only benefit Madale residents in Makongo, but also generally benefits households and food vendors in nearby streets in the city, the nation’s commercial capital of about seven million souls. [/worldpopulationreview.com/world-cities/dar-es-salaam-population>].

The founder and chief executive officer of Green Conservers (GC), Mr Baraka Machumu, said the group has established a small factory for making clean cooking energy from the remains of ugali (stiff porridge) and peels collected from nearby dumpsites and households for making charcoal briquettes.

“We dry and carbonize the waste we collect in kilns to get the raw materials we need for making charcoal briquettes,” he says – adding that the group has been working hard on the project for the past three years and the efforts have helped increase their operating capital to over Sh20 million.

Starting capital

Mr Machumu revealed that he formed GC in April 2014 with only Sh72,000 as starting capital. Today, that has grown to over Sh20 million – thereby enabling them to buy a farm in Morogoro Region on which they plan to invest in more climate change related projects, as well as agricultural projects.

In the next five years or so, he said, they will be looking at opportunities to expand their enterprise, and turn it into a facility to provide training and guidance on how best to produce clean cooking energy.

“We also plan to use the farm to expand our sales of briquettes in different parts of the country,” he says – adding “we have already created four direct jobs, as well as ten indirect jobs for people who distribute our briquettes to our customers.”

Mr Machumu reveals that they sell about 500 kilogrammes of briquettes to vendors, households, restaurants and hotels a day.

“The idea of making briquettes was to help communities, mostly women, who are users of cooking energy that poses a bazillion health hazards, and pollute the environment.

“The problem of unclean energy is not only in our community. It is a national and global problem,” he pontificates.

“I remember six years ago when I visited Ukerewe District in Mwanza Region, I learned that a young girl dropped out from school. One day, she was raped in the bush where she had gone to fetch firewood.

“This prompted me to come up with the idea of making an alternative, safer source of cooking energy to help women and girls who are most vulnerable to such incidents,” Mr Machumu says.

User comments

A Tegeta kwa Ndefu resident who uses the charcoal briquettes, Ms Janet John, says the product is cost-effective compared to wood charcoal. It also lasts longer in cooking.

She says that before she started using the charcoal briquettes, she spent about Sh3,000 on ordinary wood charcoal that lasted for a day or two. But the charcoal briquettes she buys with the same amount of money lasts for up to five days of cooking.

“The good part of charcoal briquettes is that it does not produce smoke, does not burn out fast. One can finish cooking, extinguish the briquettes – and use then again when cooking next,” she says.

Dar es Salaam is the third fastest-growing metropolis in Africa in terms of population and gross domestic product (GDP).

And its solid waste production is growing proportionally!

To-date, only highly-developed countries with dedicated waste management systems are able to decouple growth in GDP and waste production.

Over the last few years, Tanzania has shown an annual growth in real GDP of about seven percent with most of this growth taking place in Dar es Salaam City and Region.

But, waste management has not kept pace with this growth. As well as solid waste management, the key drivers of degradation in Dar es Salaam include informal/unplanned settlements, unsystematic extraction of natural resources, effluent and emissions management, etc.

It is estimated that Dar es Salaam City produces about 6,000 tonnes of solid waste per day – about 60 percent of which remains uncollected. More often than not, this ends up in storm water drains, thereby contributing to pollution of runoff water, rivers coastal waters, etc. This exacerbates annual flooding and the spread of assorted diseases which add the burden on the city dwellers.

Informal settlements

This trend relates to the high levels of informal settlements in Dar es Salaam, where some 70 percent of the residential land is occupied by informal settlements.

Data from the city’s Municipalities show that 40 percent of dumped solid waste remains uncontrolled. About 18 percent of the waste, or approximately 767 tonnes, is controlled on site per day by burying or burning.

Approximately 13 percent (546 tonnes) of solid waste in Dar es Salaam is recycled or otherwise reused daily.

More than 90 percent of human and industrial waste in the city is discharged into open water bodies untreated, leading to groundwater contamination, public health risks, eutrophication and environmental degradation.

An official from the ministry of Energy, Mr Innocent Luoga, said early last year that Tanzania is endowed with diverse renewable energy sources, ranging from biomass and hydropower to geothermal, solar and wind power. Therefore the commitment of every stakeholder was important to prudently utilize the energy sector.

However, much of this potential has not yet been fully exploited. If properly utilized, such renewable energy sources would contribute significantly to Tanzania’s energy supply, thus moving the country closer to achieving upper-middle income status as envisioned in the Tanzania National Development Vision-2025.

The executive secretary of the Tanzania Gender and Sustainable Energy Network (TANGSEN), Mr Hezron Kajange, says lack of access to cooking solutions has significant consequences for women and girls.

Not only does cooking endanger their health from inhaling toxic smoke, as well as other negatives as forest degradation.

Women of all ages spend much of their time – with school-age girls missing out on formal education – only because of domestic work like collecting firewood. To do this, they walk long distances daily, carrying heavy loads of firewood.