Kenyans are more aware than ever of what proper waste management looks like. What they are not doing enough of, according to the Kenya Extended Producer Responsibility Organisation (KEPRO), is acting on that awareness.
That was the blunt message at a KEPRO Media Breakfast on Wednesday, where the organisation brought together media houses, government officials, manufacturers and recyclers to close out its Rada Safi campaign and look ahead to what comes next for Kenya’s circular economy.
KEPRO CEO James Odongo didn’t dress it up. More manufacturers are registering under the Extended Producer Responsibility framework, he said, but that paperwork isn’t the same thing as compliance.
“There is incremental uptake of EPR. Manufacturers are registering with Producer Responsibility Organizations, but registration does not always translate into compliance,” Odongo told the gathering. “We have made progress, but there is still work to be done to build a system that is legitimate, effective and delivers for all actors across the value chain.”
Communications Lead Winnie Chepkorir then took the room through what Rada Safi actually achieved. Billboards, matatu branding, TV and radio spots, digital content and influencers all carried one message: waste separation isn’t just a chore, it’s an economic resource sitting in plain sight.
But the campaign’s biggest takeaway, she said, is that getting people to notice a problem is the easy part. Getting them to change how they behave — and building systems that make that change stick — is where the real work is.
That set up the panel discussion of the morning, “From Awareness to Action: Driving Consumer Behaviour Change and Sustainable Packaging in Kenya,” with voices from KEPRO, the Kenya Association of Manufacturers, the Kenya Association of Waste Recyclers and Nairobi City County Government.
The barriers they laid out were familiar to anyone who’s followed Kenya’s recycling sector: recycling remains expensive, infrastructure is thin on the ground, a lot of packaging still isn’t built to be recycled, households struggle to separate waste properly, and county governments and producer responsibility organisations aren’t always pulling in the same direction. Still, there was a number worth noting — stakeholders put Kenya’s EPR transition at roughly 75 to 80 percent complete, even as they conceded compliance and enforcement still lag behind.
Richard Kainikia, Secretary General of the Kenya Association of Waste Recyclers, made the case for looking at trash differently altogether.
“Waste is material to us. It is a genuine business that relies on supply and distribution just like any other business. Circular economy begins when someone identifies value in waste,” he said, adding that keeping recyclables clean and uncontaminated is what determines how much value can actually be recovered from them.
The panel’s takeaway, in the end, was less about any single fix and more about everyone doing their part — government, producers, consumers, recyclers and journalists included — and recognising that dealing with waste responsibly isn’t just good citizenship.
It’s a business worth investing in.
Wednesday’s event wasn’t just a wrap-up. It was a handoff. Rada Safi built the awareness; the next phase of the conversation moves to the 4th KEPRO Annual Circular Packaging Conference on October 2 at the Hyatt Regency Nairobi in Westlands.
Under the theme “Sustainable Packaging for a Resilient Future: Innovation. Accountability. Impact.,” KACPC IV is expected to pull in policymakers, business leaders, manufacturers, recyclers and investors for what KEPRO is pitching as the place where Kenya’s packaging and circular economy conversation stops being just talk.
“Rada Safi started the conversation. KACPC IV takes it forward,” the organisation said, in its call for stakeholders to help turn the mindset shift into an actual change of systems.
