UNIDO, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (2001 - 2005)

There is quite a lot of plastic and paper waste at dump sites and transfer stations in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, so more money is spent on transport and more space is used up at the dump site. The quality of the recycled paper and plastic is low, the collectors don’t get much money for it and some secondary materials of higher quality are even imported. The big paper mills and the plastic factories are working below their capacities.

UNIDO, the UN Industrial Development Organisation, has therefore formulated the Recycling Centre Project (RC) as a strategic intervention that will strengthen the secondary materials market place. The RC will help the MSE and CBO sector to reach the market, strengthen their performance and open up new domestic and export markets. It will provide intermediate processing: sorting, grading and baling of paper, sorting, washing, shredding and eventually pelletising of plastic waste.

WASTE is contracted as the leading technical partner in creating a recycling processing centre in Dar es Salaam. The Centre, has opened its doors in December 2003, focuses on adding value and increasing marketing options for paper and plastics collected by the informal and semi-formal MSEs and CBOs who collect waste and recyclables in Dar es Salaam neighbourhoods.

The project is financed by the government of Norway and can be defined as both an infrastructure project and a market intervention, designed to open up the South African paper recycling market to receive Tanzanian waste paper.