Inside Africa's $16 Billion Waste Economy
From The Flip by The Flip Media
April 30, 2026 · 14 min · Season 9
About this episode
The episode explores the $16 billion waste economy in Africa, highlighting innovative solutions and entrepreneurs tackling waste management.
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 pickers 05:44 - In Mombosa, Plas-tech’s Robin Kariuki is turning waste into cooking gas 09:13 - The multi-billion dollar opportunity in waste This 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
People in this episode
Guests: Boluwatife Arewa, Robin Kariuki
Topics covered
- waste management
- climate action
- entrepreneurship
- Africa
- sustainability
- innovation
Keywords
- waste economy
- Africa
- Scrapays
- Plas-tech
- climate action
- sustainability
- waste management
- entrepreneurship
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Scrapays, Plas-tech, The Greenprint, Catalyst Fund, FSD Africa, UK aid
Places: Nigeria, Kenya, Lagos, Mombosa
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