From waste to valuable resources

Our partner, Mety, is working on establishing a waste management enterprise in Madagascar. EWB-NL will help with the initial pilot project which focuses on a low-income area (Ambalavao Isotry) in Antananarivo, the capital of Madagascar. They are about 12.000 households and a lot of street food, markets, and small restaurants. At the moment, there is only a public waste bin to collect all households and businesses in the area and there is no possibility to sort the waste. Mety wants to improve waste management practices and has asked us to assist.

There are around 700 tonnes of waste generated per day in Antananarivo, around 65 % remain uncollected and 35% goes to a landfill. On the other hand, 80% of the inhabitants of Madagascar are involved in agriculture. There is a need for improving the soil quality to secure income for the farmers, to secure food production, and to adapt to climate change. Mety wants to contribute to both aspects by processing waste and producing added-value products, such as compost.

For the pilot phase, Mety is focussing on collecting and processing food waste from markets and small restaurants into good quality fertilizer or biogas. Mety is currently developing a business case and has asked us to assist in developing a sustainable business model and provide technical support in the form of a feasibility study.

The project team will conduct a feasibility study from the technical options for processing food waste, initially for turning the food waste into compost, but options for producing biogas or charcoal will also be assessed. The team will also perform a high-level environmental impact assessment for the different options.