Inside Africa's $16 Billion Waste Economy

EPISODE · Apr 30, 2026 · 14 MIN

Inside Africa's $16 Billion Waste Economy

from The Flip · host The Flip Media

Drive through cities in Africa and you’re likely to see a waste problem. In the streets, the sewage, in the waterways…540 million tons of waste goes uncollected every year across sub-Saharan Africa. It's a $16 billion opportunity. But much of the infrastructure is still missing. What would it actually take to build it at scale?In Nigeria, a company called Scrapays is paying people to collect it. In Kenya, Plas-tech is turning the same plastic into cooking gas. 00:00 - Where does your waste go? 01:25 - In Lagos, Scrapay’s Boluwatife Arewa is empowering informal waste pickers05:44 - In Mombosa, Plas-tech’s Robin Kariuki is turning waste into cooking gas09:13 - The multi-billion dollar opportunity in wasteThis episode was produced as part of our series on climate action in Africa, The Greenprint, in partnership with Catalyst Fund and FSD Africa, with the help of UK aid.Watch more episodes of The Greenprint here.Our Links -🎥 YouTube - https://youtube.com/@thefliphq🐦 Twitter - https://twitter.com/thefliphq👥 LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/thefliphq/📸 Instagram - https://instagram.com/thefliphq💻 Website - https://theflip.africa

NOW PLAYING

Inside Africa's $16 Billion Waste Economy

0:00 14:02

No transcript for this episode yet

We transcribe on demand. Request one and we'll notify you when it's ready — usually under 10 minutes.

URL copied to clipboard!