By Prudence Minayo
The city of Nairobi definitely looks beautiful with the greenery and all the developments coming up. However, garbage and poor sanitation are a menace in most parts of the city, especially in the slums. These parts are bursting with heaps of garbage, some of which are hazardous to the environment, such as plastics which take long to degrade. The banning of plastic bags in 2017 has not stopped the waste problems in the country. While others look at the garbage and see chaos, Harrison Oloo looked at it as an opportunity to quench his unflinching urge to take care of the environment and also to earn a living in the process.
Here is his story as told by WoK.
How it started
Seeing people dropping plastics everywhere was not something he liked. However, these plastics gave him an idea. He told the Nation that the initiative was born due to the environmental problems they faced in the area since people were throwing plastics carelessly. This drove him to start a waste transportation business with an initial seed capital of Sh150,000.
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Today, the business has immensely grown and he is minting millions out of it. He has also managed to create employment opportunities for youths in the area.
“I look at my little children and probably my grandchildren who are yet to come, and ask myself what kind of environment they are going to live in,” he said.
This bothered him so much that he took on the project. He said he wants whoever comes after him to push the initiative so that we can have a clean and better environment to live in.
The Initiative
The Initiative involves collecting garbage from dump sites and picking up the plastic materials. These materials are taken to recycling companies, such as Wicko and EPZ. They are recycled then ferried abroad to beverage companies. Currently, he has employed more than twenty youths who are involved with the process of packaging dumped plastic wastes from trash to better appealing materials. A local daily reported that he makes up to Ksh1 million for a single order.
Mr. Oloo’s company also recycles used cooking oil from hotels. He purchases this used cooking oil from hotels and it is recycled to make bar soaps. He says this is to curb pollution from companies through oil spillage.
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Challenges
Like many other entrepreneurs, he has faced his own hurdles in the business. Harrison Oloo said one of the main challenges encountered was high license charges from the government. This has been a stumbling block on some of his expansion plans.
A key lesson from his story is that your passion can turn into a profit making venture and that youths should seize the opportunity whenever it presents itself.
