164 ANNE M. KARANJA, MOSES M. IKIARA, THEO C. DAVIES
The Factory Act, Cap 514, has a slight relevance to large-scale recycling companies
using waste materials in production. This Act requires that factories are kept clean and
free from effluvia resulting from the drainage of waste, sanitary convenience or
nuisance. It also requires that accumulations of waste from the various production
processes be cleared daily from the factory premises by a suitable method. It does not
extend to other related manufacturing activities taking place outside the factory
premises, such as the sourcing or transportation of raw materials inputs. The Act refers
to waste only as ‘dirt and refuse’ and does not make specific reference to hazardous
wastes. Such hazardous waste often ends up in the Dandora dumpsite and also in the
undesignated waste dumps within the city. The formal SWM policy does not classify
waste on the basis of health and environmental risks. Generators of such waste are left
to dispose the waste without control.
The Scrap Metal Act, Cap 503, gives marginal relevance to the recovery and recycling
of scrap metal. This law requires that an intending scrap metal dealer acquire a license
from local government. It also prohibits the storage of scrap metal in a place other than
that specified in the license, or otherwise authorised in writing by the licensing officer.
The act does not cover other waste materials or even other waste management proc-
esses with regard to scrap metal, which is in the first instance only implicitly defined
as waste. It has nothing on waste recycling or reduction of the rate of generation of
scrap metal. Like other NCC SWM policies, it faces serious problems of enforcement.
8.3. ACTORS IN RECOVERY,REUSE,TRADE AND RECYCLING
The recovery and recycling activities in Nairobi are organised in several commodity
chains, consisting of a combination of waste pickers, itinerant buyers, dealers or
traders and wholesalers^2 , as well as small-scale and large-scale recycling units. These
activities take place in a private market and involve a number of activities. Waste
pickers and itinerant buyers operate at the lower-income end of the chain and large
recycling enterprises at the highest-income end. Dealers and wholesalers operating at
the intermediate income levels of the commodity chain provide the link between the
pickers and recyclers
Waste pickers obtain waste materials from streets and dumps to sell to traders and
wholesalers The materials are then sold to small- and large-scale recycling enterprises.
However, these actors sometimes sell materials directly to reusers, e.g. bottles and
newspapers Similarly some of the actors, especially those at the higher income-end of
the chain, occasionally source waste material inputs from outside the local chain.
Within the commodity chain, large recyclers using waste materials in production,
normally determine prices, which influence those down the line.
- There are few wholesalers in Nairobi, one of them specializes in waste paper.