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In Summary:

Kenya will not solve its waste crisis until producers, consumers, government and waste handlers take responsibility for the waste they create, manage and leave behind.

Kenya’s waste problem is no longer simply a question of dirty streets, overflowing bins or plastic litter. It is a test of accountability. Every discarded bottle, food package, carton or piece of plastic represents a chain of decisions involving the producer who put it into circulation, the consumer who used it, the waste handler expected to collect it and the authorities responsible for creating and enforcing a system that works.

The Kenya Extended Producer Responsibility Organization (KEPRO) is now calling for stronger collaboration among government, industry, consumers and the waste-management sector to turn growing awareness into measurable action. 

That shift is important because awareness alone does not clean neighbourhoods, protect rivers or keep waste out of drainage systems. Behaviour must change, but so must the systems that support responsible behaviour.

KEPBRO staff photo moment yesterday  during media engagement |Credits KEPRO

KEPRO Chief Executive James Odongo has acknowledged that uptake of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) is increasing, while also noting that more work is required to make the system legitimate, effective and beneficial to all actors across the value chain. Kenya’s EPR framework places greater responsibility on producers for what happens to products and packaging after consumers have used them. (KEPRO)

That principle should be taken seriously.

Producers cannot reasonably expect consumers and county governments to carry the entire burden of managing packaging waste. If a company manufactures or imports products that eventually become waste, responsibility should extend beyond the point of sale. Producers must support systems that make collection, recovery, recycling and responsible disposal possible.

But producer responsibility should not become an excuse for consumers to look away.

The ordinary Kenyan consumer also has a role to play. Throwing a bottle out of a moving vehicle, dumping waste beside a road, mixing recyclable material with other household waste or assuming that someone else will clean up after us are choices that contribute directly to the problem.

Personal responsibility starts with simple decisions: using waste bins, separating waste where systems allow it, avoiding unnecessary littering, reusing materials where practical and ensuring that waste reaches legitimate collection channels.

The same principle applies to businesses, institutions, landlords, schools, markets and residential communities. A clean environment cannot be achieved through government enforcement alone. It requires people to recognise that waste generated within their premises or through their activities remains part of their responsibility even after it leaves their hands.

Government, meanwhile, must match public expectations with effective enforcement and infrastructure. National and county authorities have a responsibility to ensure that waste-management laws are implemented, licensed operators are properly monitored and communities have access to functional collection and disposal systems.

The Kenya Extended Producer Responsibility framework is intended to create a more structured system in which producers contribute to managing post-consumer waste. KEPRO says its recovery and recycling programme connects collectors, aggregators, transporters, recyclers and other value-chain actors, while its broader approach seeks to strengthen traceability and transparency. (KEPRO)

This is where accountability becomes critical.

Kenya needs to know whether money committed to waste management is actually translating into waste recovered, recycled and kept out of the environment. Producers should be able to demonstrate their compliance. Waste-management operators should be accountable for the services they provide. Regulators should be able to enforce the rules. County governments should be answerable for waste systems within their jurisdictions. And citizens should be able to demand evidence that the system is delivering results.

Transparency should therefore become a central feature of Kenya’s circular-economy journey.

KEPRO itself identifies transparency, traceability and collaboration as important elements of its recovery and recycling model. Its current programme also emphasises verified material traceability and digital reporting. (KEPRO) Such systems should ultimately make it easier to answer a basic public-interest question: where does the waste go after it leaves our hands?

The answer should not disappear into a chain of contractors and paperwork.

Kenya also needs to stop treating waste purely as something to be removed. Properly segregated and recovered waste can become an economic resource, supporting recycling businesses, creating employment and providing raw materials for new products. KEPRO says its recovery programmes have already supported waste recovery and recycling while strengthening the wider circular economy. (KEPRO)

But the circular economy will remain an attractive phrase unless Kenya closes the gap between policy and behaviour.

The Rada Safi campaign presents an important opportunity to make that connection. Its central message—that responsibility for waste cannot be assigned to one group alone—should move beyond billboards, media conversations and public events and become a daily national practice.

Every stakeholder should therefore ask a difficult question: What responsibility am I taking for the waste I create or manage?

For producers, that means designing products and packaging with their entire life cycle in mind and meeting their EPR obligations. For consumers, it means taking responsibility for disposal. For businesses and institutions, it means establishing responsible waste-management practices. For waste operators, it means delivering accountable and traceable services. For government, it means enforcing the law and providing the infrastructure necessary for compliance.

And for the public, it means refusing to normalise littering and illegal dumping.

Kenya does not need another campaign that ends when the posters come down. It needs a sustained culture of responsibility in which environmental accountability becomes part of how citizens consume, how companies produce and how government regulates.

The country's transition to a circular economy will ultimately be measured not by the number of awareness campaigns launched, but by what happens to the waste after the campaign has made people aware.

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