1. “Profit from Waste”
Project Documentation
Stakeholders
Owner
Community Development Committee Luwinga
Mzuzu City
Architect:
4th Architectural Dimension
Supervision of implementation
J. Mendele Community Development Leader,
Luwinga Community Development committee
O. P. Kaisi, 4th Architectural Dimension
Mzuzu University Faculty of Environmental Sciences
GIZ
Additional project components
Business training and planning, Malawi Confederation of
Chambers of Commerce and Industry (MCCCI)
Contract agreement on PPP with Mzuzu City
Recycling facilities
Funding
German Embassy
GIZ
Projekt Direkt e.V.
Community
PPP businesses created
Waste collection and recycling
Public sanitation facilities
Restaurant
Project Summary
Malawi is undergoing a decentralization process moving responsibilities in different sectors to the
Local Government Authorities. A big challenge due to shortages in professional personnel and due to
the delayed fiscal decentralization is the devolution of physical planning and development
management tasks. However, as per Local Government Act, a Local Government Authority is
responsible to provide urban infrastructure services to its citizens.
One of the biggest problems for the Malawian local development planning, implementation and
administration is the management of waste and the provision of access to improved sanitation
especially in urban and urbanizing areas. The young Malawian cities and urbanizing locations, which
are however very fast growing, do not provide for centrally managed waste water and sanitation
infrastructure, well planned and fills, waste transport and recycling equipment to sustainably handle
one of the major challenges to public health.

2. Managing waste and sanitation decentrally in Public Private Partnerships, will help the Local
Government Authorities to cope with the challenge of service provision. Pursued is an easily
replicable scheme based on the principles of harvesting renewable energy, supporting local economic
development, and promoting sustainable infrastructure solutions in line with MDG 7 with the
objective of achieving sustainable development.
The proposal requests funding for the extension of the initiative through installment of recycling
facilities on site and the required machines to recycle plastics, glass, and metals.
Social Impact
Development idea addressed
Sustainable basic infrastructure development in a PPP, generating income from waste.
Key characteristics of specific development issues addressed within the overall context
Managing waste and sanitation decentrally in Public Private Partnerships, will help the Local
Authorities to cope with the challenge of service provision.
Poverty alleviation and development in the short and long term
Income generation, and improvement of sanitary (i.e. public health) conditions are the two
fundamental benefits of the scheme
Assessment of the overall impact
Citizen satisfaction and awareness is assessed by the Community Development Committee of the area
in an informal manner, involving market community, women’s business organizations, widow’s
groupings among other beneficiaries.
Project Facility
Overall goal of the project
It is anticipated to create a comprehensive waste management cycle managed by an enterprise which
is created by direct users from a community.
It comprises:
• Waste collection
• Recycling
• Transforming the collected waste and faeces from the public toilet into energy (biogas)
• Energy reuse (of the generated cooking fuel) by women’s restaurant business
• Waste water treatment
• Lighting and hot water heating with solar energy.
Project design and methods
Public pay toilets and showers are
located next to a produce market.
The facility includes a biogas
digester. The site may be used for
additional communal uses, such as
child care.
• Organic waste from the
market, from households, and
from the pay toilets is digested
in the biogas reactor.

3. • Biogas produced from the system would be used as a source of energy for cooking (separate
restaurant business at same location) and/or heating (water of public showers). The use of
biogas for cooking and heating substitutes the use firewood and charcoal as sources of fuel,
thereby contributing to reduced deforestation, soil erosion, air pollution, indoor air pollution and
global warming.
• Effluent produced can be used as organic fertilizer improving soil fertility and structure, and the
reduction of the amount of chemical fertilizers imported.
• Grey water from showers is treated separate through small reed bed, and effluent may be used
for irrigation.
• Facility should have solar hot water heating if biogas is not used for heating.
• Simple solar photovoltaic for lighting (without need of inverter)
• Rain water harvesting for the use in showers and for flushing, which, however needs support
from piped water as backup in dry season.
• Covered waste segregation site, where non-biodegradable materials are separated for recycling.
• Waste collection from households, or incentive to bring waste to the site through payment of
money or token for the use for public facilities, or meals.
• Use of sustainable construction material through the use of compressed earth blocks, or
controlled burnt bricks using for example coffee husk or tobacco stems for fuel, depending on
location and local availability.
Innovative approach to addressing the development issue
The innovation of this scheme lies in the combination of ecological sanitation, the recycling of
resources and generation of energy from the waste, sanitation as a business (i.e. a non-subsidiary
scheme) for ensuring sustainability and replicability. A Public-private-partnership scheme is set up for
the provision of urban infrastructure services, which are decentralized and autonomous for public
benefit.
It is a holistic, integrated approach using only environmentally sound technologies and infrastructure
alternatives at lowest cost, and avoiding any destructive practices such as the local uncontrolled firing
of bricks. All aspects of the scheme are sustainable, and support the Targets 1, 3 and 4 of MDG 7, as
well as having an impact on reaching the objectives of MDG’s 1, 3, 4 and 5.
Our scheme bundles a community with a City administration, with expertise from researchers and
academia, private professionals, and small-scale governmental and non-governmental funding.
Results and their direct impact on improving individuals’ or communities’ livelihood
The output is a pilot sustainable decentral community-driven waste management business and
infrastructure facility, which can be replicated. It is income generating, and runs in a form of a Public-
Private-Partnership with Mzuzu City.

4. The impact is multi-fold, and comprises
• Income generation for widows and unemployed local citizens
• Access to improved sanitation
• Access to improved water sources
• Contribution to reduced deforestation (and awareness), through the use of alternative cooking
fuel
• Contribution to reduced CO2 emissions (and awareness), through reduction of unauthorized
brick making
• Reduced use of water resources and saving of valuable potable water through the harvesting of
rain water
• Saving of valuable (diesel-generated) energy through the harvesting of solar
• Supporting the city management in their responsibility for urban service provision
• Reduction of waste being dumped, burnt or buried
• Harvesting of energy from waste (biogas)
• Encouraged waste collection (i.e. cleanliness and sanitation) through attaching a value to it
• Improved maternal health
• Reduced child mortality
• Reduced proportion of population living on less than 1 USD/day
Scope of Project for Replication
Potential for replication in other countries, regions, sectors, and cultures
Once having gone through the entire project process, with experiences gained in all three fields -
community organization, construction, and business planning – the scheme will be easily replicable in
the same city, country, region, and probably even across cultures due to the fundamental nature of the
problem.
The exemplary PPP between the business and the City can be expanded to a group of service
providers, all entering into PPP agreement for different neighborhoods.
Planned use of the additional funds
Education programs and exhibitions shall be run in the facility (the restaurant), especially on
environment and sanitation. The community wants to promote replication of the scheme in other
neighborhoods in Mzuzu. Stakeholders, and contributors originating from different villages, so also
the involved nearby market vendors, will carry the idea into their home area.
The means for recycling shall be completed by the purchase of a plastic crusher, which would enable
to sell and reuse the collected and sorted plastic materials.
Activities and methodology for replicating and scaling up the project
• Civic education programs, e.g. for school classes
• Business planning support programs
• Exhibitions
• Presentations, i.e. by the involved Mzuzu University
• Student projects may be attached to the scheme (environmental engineering as well as social
sciences)
Implications and costs of replicating/scaling up the project
Once the project is running successfully, scaling up will be mainly a matter of publicity and
personal/group engagement. Main costs will occur for the construction of similar facilities in other
locations. Since it is a pilot project, it will be possible to lower costs for replicated projects as a result
of the prior experiences.

5. Cost Effectiveness
Measurable impact/outcomes in comparison to the cost of the project
• Income generated in MKW
• Waste collected in kg (inorganic/organic)
• Waste recycled in kg (unorganic/organic)
• Trips of municipal waste collection reduced in number per month, and fuel saved in litres per
month
• Number of open defecation reduced per day
• Renewable energy harvested in litres / day
• Fuel wood saved in kg/week by harvesting biogas
• Potable water use reduced in litres / year by harvesting rain water in litres / year
• Number of civic education programs in water and sanitation run / year
Vision and Sustainability
Long-term sustainability
In the long run the development impact of the project is expected to be tremendous as the project
provides a feasible and reasonable starting point for urban management tasks together with the
communities and with community businesses driving development and service provision.
Likelihood of continuance of the operations and plans to ensure it, and benefits continuing
The project is designed in a most possibly simple infrastructure with highest effect. Continuance of
operations is expected because material incentives for the operations are given by attaching financial
or in-kind compensation for collecting and bringing waste, which is the heart of ensuring operations
of the facility.
Capacity to sustain the results of the project
The project is run in a PPP, which sustains its results from the profits made from waste and sale of
recycled raw materials, and restaurant services