ETCO PARTICIPATES IN THE 2024 ANNUAL CIRCULAR PACKAGING CONFERENCE
The Loresho air smelled of cut grass and diesel from the road outside Shamba Events — the kind of Nairobi morning where you button your jacket and still hope for tea. On 22 October 2024, day one of the Kenya Extended Producer Responsibility Organisation (KEPRO) Annual Circular Packaging Conference, ETCO stepped into a room where packaging was not just “waste” but a design problem the whole country is trying to solve.
The theme hung over every session: Advancing Circularity — Innovating for Sustainable Packaging Solutions. Between panels, people leaned across aisles swapping cards and honest frustrations: thin films that choke recyclers, labels that confuse sorting lines, policies racing behind reality. It is easy to feel small in that conversation; it is also where community organisations belong, because we see the end of the pipe every day.
Day two, 23 October, stretched the learning beyond PowerPoint. KEPRO organised a Circular Tour for stakeholders along the value chain — aggregators, recyclers, and a stop at the Kenya Industrial Research and Development Institute (KIRDI). Watching material move from pile to process makes the jargon evaporate. You stop talking about “circularity” in the abstract and start asking practical questions: who collects, who pays, who gets hurt when the system fails?
We left with notebooks fuller than our pockets — and with a clearer line between conference optimism and the muddy work back in Kibera. If you work in packaging or logistics and want to connect what you design with what we handle on the ground, reach out. The best ideas die without honest feedback from neighbourhoods like ours.
World Menstrual Hygiene Day Celebration
In celebration of Menstrual Hygiene Day, ETCO, in partnership with Rotary Club of Nairobi Connect and with support from the Safaricom Foundation, today donated 900 sanitary towels to girls at Joash Olum Primary School. This initiative was aimed at supporting the girl child by promoting menstrual dignity, boosting confidence, and helping keep girls in school so they can stay focused on their education and future careers.
Kikuyu Rotary Club Team site visit - partnership
It was a pleasure hosting the Nairobi Rotary Club Connect’s Yumbya Nyamai, who also represented Ecologists Without Borders (EcoWB), alongside the Kikuyu Rotary Club Presidents—past, current, and incoming—George Ngotho, Patrick, and Marion respectively. We truly appreciated your visit to the site and your interest in the upcoming waste management project.
Efforts: Inputs - Waste Management Project Strategy
Soon, just very soon. It will all make sense. Efforts, sleepless nights.... Stress, strategies, failures and minor successes... One day, I'll look back and say, Yes, I created a *System* Generation System... Me and the people I serve will be grateful... I'll be happy to have served my purpose in this world. 😊😊