New recycling initiative turns household waste into income

Dar es Salaam. A new community recycling initiative launched in Dar es Salaam is seeking to turn household waste into a source of income while tackling the city’s persistent plastic pollution challenge.

The Taka Pesa Project, unveiled over the weekend, encourages residents to separate recyclable waste at home and deliver it to designated collection points where it is weighed and exchanged for cash.

Backed by a partnership between recycling companies, civil society organizations and environmental stakeholders, the programme aims to channel collected waste into formal recycling value chains, strengthening Tanzania’s emerging circular economy while improving urban cleanliness.

Founder and managing director of The Recycler Mr Matthew Haden, said the concept was inspired by successful waste-for-cash initiatives abroad.

“I travelled across the world looking at different solutions for stopping plastic from going to the ocean and rivers, and I saw an example like this in the Philippines,” he said during the launch event.

“It was one of the most successful projects I saw. Household sorting is very difficult, but when you incentivize it with cash, people start separating their waste.”

The project has already established four collection centres in Dar es Salaam and plans to expand to at least 25 locations across the city. Discussions are also underway to roll out the model in Zanzibar.

Beyond encouraging recycling, the initiative is introducing new technology to improve waste logistics. Haden said the project has brought in its first electric truck to collect recyclable materials from the centres.

“This reduces transport costs and makes the process more sustainable,” he said. “We don’t want to see waste on beaches or in rivers, and one way to stop that is to collect it at source before it enters the environment.”

Under the programme, residents can bring post-consumer packaging materials such as plastic bottles, cartons and boxes to designated containers or collection centres. The materials are weighed and paid for based on prevailing market prices.

Managing director of recycling firm PETpro Mr Nicholaus Jackson, said the initiative offers both environmental and economic incentives.

“When you see these containers, anyone can bring recyclable materials from home,” he said. “You bring your waste, we weigh it, check the market price depending on the material, and then you receive your payment.”

Flavian Ngeni, National Plastic Action Partnership (NPAP) manager in Tanzania under the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), said financial incentives are key to changing behavior.

“If you incentivize waste, it automatically attracts attention,” he said. “If households know they can earn something by bringing bottles or other materials, it becomes easier to encourage sorting at the household level.”

Local authorities have also expressed support for the initiative as part of wider efforts to improve environmental management in the city.

Kinondoni Municipal environmental inspector Alban Mujabuso said the government is ready to collaborate with stakeholders to promote cleaner neighbourhoods and healthier urban environments.

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania’s commercial capital, produces thousands of tonnes of solid waste daily, much of which ends up in landfills, waterways or the ocean due to limited recycling systems.

Initiatives like Taka Pesa, stakeholders say, could help shift public attitudes toward waste while building a more sustainable recycling economy in the country.