URBAN ORGANIC SOLID WASTE:PRACTICES IN NAIROBI 243
organic waste generated from outside the farm. There is a demand too for the latter
kind of organic waste, and a significant number of farms source from this market,
though respondents are unable to report accurately on rates of application. Organic
waste brought into the farm from outside is, however, mostly animal manure. Most of
the organic wastes collected from hotels, markets and other institutions are used for
livestock feeding, with a small fraction applied directly to the fields, thus supple-
menting the role of crop residues as soil conditioners.
Forty three percent of the markets and institutions surveyed reported that some of the
organic waste collected from their premises was used as animal feed, largely for pigs.
A survey carried out by the Mazingira Institute in 1985 indicated furthermore that 14
percent of animal producers in Nairobi fed their animals on garbage in the wet season
compared to 12 percent in the dry season (Mazingira Institute, 1987). Beside the use
of organic waste direct from markets, schools, hotels, and other institutions as animal
feed and on farms, urban and peri-urban farmers use compost as well. Most farmers
rely on family labour, with up to 70 percent of all farms using family labour for
applying organic waste. Nevertheless, the use of hired labour for general farming
activities is also important.
The 1985 survey by the Mazingira Institute (1987) showed that 35 percent of the
farmers in Nairobi used compost, 91 percent of which was from their own sources.
Several community-based organisations are involved in composting of organic waste
in Nairobi. Farmers do not resort to dumpsites to obtain organic wastes, although in
some fringe areas, farmers ask waste companies to deliver municipal waste to their
farms. Thus, recycling of urban organic waste including composting and the consump-
tion of large fractions of food wastes resulting from reclamation of some components
at the household and institutional levels, are the major determinants of patterns of
urban solid waste reuse in Nairobi, though a small seasonal impact may also be
present.
12.3. RECYCLING AND REUSE OF URBAN ORGANIC SOLID WASTE
There is no doubt that some recycling and reuse of organic waste is going on in
Nairobi. However, the magnitude of these operations is not known with certainty,
making it difficult to gauge whether or not they make a significant impact on fluxes in
the urban solid waste cycle. Questions such as the quantity of food waste that is
diverted and the quantity of dung coming from the urban area need to be addressed.
The actors involved in waste generation include households, markets and institutions,
composting CBOs and NGOs offering assistance to CBOs and the farmers who are
consumers of compost. The amount of organic waste generated by institutions is
enormous and variable. It is difficult to work out precise estimates of quantities
because they hardly ever weigh the amount of waste generated. Waste handling by