KENYA: A pioneering cooker invented in Kenya and fuelled entirely by rubbish has scooped several international ingenuity awards

Record ID: 362605

  • Title: KENYA: A pioneering cooker invented in Kenya and fuelled entirely by rubbish has scooped several international ingenuity awards
  • Date: 22nd April 2013
  • Summary: NAIVASHA, KENYA (RECENT) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF MAN PUTTING RUBBISH DOWN A SHOOT STICK PUSHING RUBBISH INTO INCINERATOR MAN PUSHING RUBBISH DOWN SHOOT WITH A STICK MORE OFF GARBAGE BEING PUSHED DOWN INCINERATOR MAN COOKING ON GIANT STOVE CHAPATI (FLAT BREAD) BEING TURNED ON HOT PLATE WOMAN STIRRING A POT POT ON THE STOVE SIGN READING: PROJECT KARAGITA COMMUNITY COOKER WIDE
  • Embargoed: 7th May 2013 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Kenya
  • Country: Kenya
  • Topics: Environment,Technology
  • Reuters ID: LVA18UV82A8TS5CSZ2504NSY7B1H
  • Story Text: Plastic bags, food cartons, cardboard boxes and old clothes - they are all rubbish found in slums in and around Naivasha in Kenya's Rift Valley region and they all need to be disposed of.
    But this is more than just a trash shoot. It is a giant incinerator that burns plastics and other garbage at 800 degrees centigrade. The energy generated is then used to fuel a giant cooker.
    The six ring rubbish burning stove was introduced to the community six months ago and already it's helped provide a cleaner local environment and a faster, cheaper way for people to prepare food.

    "It saves me money because I don't use paraffin. I come here with my food, I cook and then I go home," said Lillian Wambula.
    The stove was invented by a team of architects at the design firm, Planning Systems Services in the capital Nairobi.
    Getting the cooker to heat the rubbish at temperatures high enough to burn off any noxious fumes took several years to perfect.
    A prototype for the cooker was finally built last year and since then the design has picked up several international innovation awards.
    Janice Muthui, who heads the foundation set up to run the project, says the interest it has had internationally has been a great boost to the company, but persuading people that rubbish can be used as fuel is always a challenge.

    "We know that its sound that the technology is sound and we're getting all these awards, international awards because they really do believe in the technology but now what we really need to do is get the community on board. Of course we've had issues people thinking, rubbish, cooking my food I mean my old socks could actually be making my next meal you know. So those are the kind of things that we have to try and overcome and we're still working on it," she said.
    The first people to buy into the idea was a flower farm in Naivasha. The farm generates a lot of waste itself and many of the workers live in nearby slums where people are often forced to live alongside piles of rubbish.
    The farm bought a cooker to help improve lives of its workers and bring the fair-trade company inline with international eco-friendly standards.
    David Musyoka from the flower farm group says it has been so transformative for his community that he hopes the idea will spread to other parts of the country.

    "If it can be built everywhere in Kenya in each county if it can get this, everywhere will be clean," he said.
    So far there are two cookers operating in Kenya, one here in Naivasha and another one in Nairobi's Kibera slum.
    Both cookers are available for families to use whenever they chose and for companies to come and cook food to sell.
    While people in Naivasha queue up daily for a hot meal prepared with yesterday's rubbish, word is spreading of the cooker's clean and green credentials.
    Orders for similar cookers are already flooding in from clients abroad with interest shown by companies in Nigeria, Britain and even Bali.
    The world marks Earth Day - a day of environmental awareness on April 22.
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