Our plastic buy-back initiative is the simplest programme we run to explain, and one of the hardest to get right operationally: pay residents a fair, published rate for clean, sorted plastic, and let that direct incentive do most of the work that awareness campaigns alone struggle to achieve. Here's the full picture of how it works, from a household's sack of bottles to a recycler's raw material.

The basic mechanics

Plastic buy-back runs from four fixed points across our service area — Kasarani, Roysambu, Sunton and, most recently, Githurai — each on a set weekly day. Residents bring sorted, reasonably clean plastic, it's weighed on a scale in front of them, and payment is made immediately in cash at published per-kilogram rates. There's no membership, no minimum quantity, and no requirement to be a household already on our door-to-door collection route — anyone can sell plastic at any buy-back point.

Why we pay for plastic instead of just collecting it

Collection alone, however well organised, relies on residents' goodwill and habit to keep segregating consistently over months and years. Payment changes the calculation directly: a resident deciding whether to bother separating a plastic bottle from general waste now has an immediate, tangible reason to do it, rather than an abstract environmental one that's easy to deprioritise on a busy day. In our experience, areas with active buy-back points see meaningfully higher and more consistent segregation rates than areas relying on collection and education alone.

Where the money comes from

Buy-back payments are funded by what we earn selling sorted, baled plastic on to licensed recyclers, who pay us a wholesale rate reflecting current market demand for recycled material. We deliberately price our buy-back payments to residents below what we receive from recyclers, not to maximise margin, but because that spread covers transport, sorting yard operations, and staff wages — the buy-back initiative is designed to be self-sustaining rather than dependent on outside funding to keep running.

What happens to the plastic after weighing

Plastic collected across our four buy-back points is consolidated at our sorting yard, checked for type and quality, baled, and sold on to recyclers who process it into raw material for new products — new bottles and containers in the case of PET, and a range of moulded products for HDPE. The full journey from a resident's sack to a recycler's raw material typically takes a few weeks, depending on volume and collection timing.

Growing the buy-back network

We started with a single buy-back arrangement, informal and irregular, before registration as a CBO gave us the standing and structure to formalise it into fixed weekly points. Githurai, our newest point, opened specifically because residents there were already travelling to Kasarani or Roysambu to sell plastic, which told us clearly that demand existed before we ever set up locally. We assess new buy-back points the same way we assess new collection villages: based on demonstrated demand, not speculative expansion.

What sellers should know before bringing plastic in

  • Rinse plastic to remove food or liquid residue; it doesn't need to be spotless.
  • Separate caps from bottles where possible, since they're often a different plastic type.
  • Bring PET (clear drinking bottles) and HDPE (sturdier opaque containers) specifically — these are what our current buyers accept at scale.
  • Check the schedule for your nearest point; each runs on a fixed weekly day, not daily.
  • There's no need to pre-sort perfectly — our team will help sort at the point itself if needed.

How buy-back rates are actually set

Rates aren't arbitrary or fixed indefinitely — they're set based on what recyclers are currently paying us for baled, sorted material, adjusted periodically to reflect real market conditions rather than an internal guess. When recycled plastic demand is strong, buy-back rates to residents can rise; when it softens, rates may adjust downward. We publish current rates clearly at every buy-back point specifically so this isn't a source of confusion or a point where individual negotiation could creep in — everyone selling on a given day sees and receives the same published rate, regardless of how much they're bringing or who they are.

What we've learned about seller behaviour over time

Buy-back volume isn't perfectly steady week to week; it tends to build toward the end of a month, when households have accumulated more sorted plastic, and dip slightly around periods when other demands on time and money are higher. We've adjusted staffing at each point to roughly match these patterns rather than staffing every week identically, which has made the whole system more efficient without residents needing to change their own natural rhythms of collecting and bringing plastic in.

What a slow buy-back day tells us

Occasionally a scheduled buy-back day sees noticeably lower turnout than usual, and rather than treating this as simply normal variation, we've learned to check in with residents nearby to understand why — sometimes it's a genuinely unrelated local event competing for people's time, but sometimes it flags something worth addressing, like a household losing confidence after a previous visit where sorting expectations weren't communicated clearly enough.

How buy-back complements rather than competes with informal waste pickers

Nairobi has a long-standing informal waste picker economy, and we've been deliberate about not positioning our buy-back initiative as competition to that existing, often precarious livelihood. Several of our buy-back sellers are, in fact, people who were already informally picking and selling recyclables before our fixed points existed; what we've added is a reliable, fair, published-rate outlet rather than displacing an existing way of earning.

Frequently asked questions

Which plastic types does the buy-back initiative accept?

Primarily PET (clear drinking bottles) and HDPE (sturdier containers like cooking oil bottles), since these have reliable, economically viable recycling markets at the volumes we handle.

Do rates change over time?

Yes, buy-back rates can shift with what recyclers are currently paying for baled material, though we always publish current rates clearly at each buy-back point rather than negotiating individually.

Can a school or business sell plastic through buy-back?

Yes, the same rates and process apply regardless of whether the seller is a household, school or small business.

Find your nearest buy-back point and its schedule on our programmes page, or ask us directly if you're unsure.