Tuesday 19 December 2017

ICCM changing the perception of waste in Malawi






"Solid waste sorting is critically low at all levels."
Solid Waste Composition and Greenhouse Gases Emissions Baseline Study in Lilongwe City, Malawi September 2016 written by Lilongwe City Council LCC, Environmental Affairs Department EAD, United Nations Development Program UNDP, National Climate Change Program NCCP and Ministry of Natural Resources Energy and Mining MNREM 

Waste, it builds up in the streams and in piles that are behind offices, unseen to the public. Waste in all types, mainly plastics and papers are used for good burning products to light fires for cooking, heat and light. The pollutants roam into the atmosphere to solve the ongoing problem.

Agriculture waste, biomass is also put into piles all across the central and southern region of rural Malawi and burnt to clear the fields before planting season. Burning these nutrients will turn Malawi into a desert and the effects are clearly seen as the basking sun burns the soils every year.



With 82% of Malawians living in the rural areas agriculture is one of the main economic activities. People all sew the fields by hand and depend on rains for good growing crops that they buy and sell for profit. Every planting season begins with people having to buy fertilizer at 16,000 to 18,000mkw ($22-25) a bag not knowing that the biomass they collect and burn from the fields can be made into good organic compost. With the average monthly salary ranging from 25,000mkw to 40,000mkw ($35-55) a month for lower paid jobs in the city centre of Lilongwe you can see the personal damage in the rural villages. Making compost for the fields is a tradition that has been lost, although north Malawi are continuing to make compost due to a higher level of education in that region.


Managing waste at JTI Family Day, Lilongwe Golf Club



 "The largest source of solid waste is biomass"
Solid Waste Composition and Greenhouse Gases Emissions Baseline Study in Lilongwe City, Malawi September 2016 written by LCC, EAD, UNDP , NCCP and MNREM 

So people are struggling in peri urban and rural areas around Lilongwe while the highest rate of waste has been proven to be biomass, full of nutritional value for the agriculture sector. I think it is simple to say we can use this waste to improve the lives of the communities and the main factor of succeeding is education. 


International Conservation and Clean up Management, ICCM is working to change the mindset of people to understand the envelope of the environment and how we can best work with the environment using all natural resources which includes waste.


Waste sorting structure at Mbinzi Primary School 
Environmental Week at Paramount School
 ICCM will empower people in communities to understand to keep all biomass that can be used to make good natural compost, or used as an energy source. Depending on the skills of the people, the location, the natural resources and waste available ICCM analyse all criteria to create efficient programs. We facilitate and give people ideas based on there own thoughts to ensure the income generating project are owned by the community.

Our team in ICCM are currently a group of volunteers, environmentalists and some graduates /students from Universities. We create a platform for continual research and to support ideas towards designing and constructing sufficient innovative devices. Our continual on the ground activities include recycling collections, capacity building workshops and events to support the ICCM team initiatives and resources for some government school cleanup, education and low tech waste innovation workshops.


ICCM Team

I'd like to personally thank you all for your hard work, passion and commitment to expand our ICCM network and projects throughout Lilongwe, Malawi.

For more information please go to www.iccmanagement.org


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