Trash into Cash, Ethiopia
This project aimed to set up a pilot plastic recycling facility in the Melkadida refugee camp, focusing on developing machines that can be built, operated, and repaired locally, with low power demand.
Background
Engineers Without Borders (EWB) partnered with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in 2018 to find solutions for plastic pollution in and around refugee camps 2018.
Two hundred thousand refugees live in the Melkadida refugee camp and generate vast amounts of plastic. No proper waste management systems are available; therefore, the waste is often burned on the open street, harming health and the environment.
In 2019, NGI received funding from the Norwegian Retailers' Environment Fund to further develop the Project in collaboration with EWB, the UNHCR, and the Norwegian Refugee Council. The recycling pilot facility would reduce plastic pollution in the local area and create jobs.
In cooperation with the local population, we found a need to establish a system for collecting, sorting, washing, and locally recycling plastic waste. Instead of purchasing a ready-made facility, the Project worked on solutions for the refugees and the local population to set up and operate themselves.
A water sedimentation tank was developed to reuse water after washing (left), Bicycle shredder developed to be able to crush plastic with limited power (middle), Pyrolysis use low-grade plastic to heat and melt higher-grade plastics into new products (right).
As the COVID-19 outbreak restricted travel in 2020, the project technical development was moved to Oslo, where a bicycle shredder, a cleaning unit (with water reuse possibilities), and a clean-burning pyrolysis furnace were constructed and tested. The goal of the pyrolysis furnace was for it to use low-quality plastic waste as an energy source to recycle high-quality plastic.
The Project was terminated early due to political instability in the country. The funds left were allocated to the SUWASO project in Uganda.