By FCPA Jim McFie, a Fellow of ICPAK
Waste Prevention Starts with A Mindset: Thinking in Terms of Reducing, Reusing, Recycling, And Redesigning
“GRI 306: Waste 2020” is a Standard, re-published in 2025, designed to promote sustainability reporting, issued by the Global Sustainability Standards Board (GSSB). The Nairobi Securities Exchange ESG Disclosures Guidance Manual, published in November 2021, recommends the adoption of the GRI (Global Reporting Initiative’s) Standards as the common framework for ESG reporting by listed companies in Kenya. The NSE Manual requires organizations to ensure that the internal audit team is empowered to review performance of controls over ESG issues and periodically report to senior management and the Board on the performance of these ESG matters; in other words, an ESG report should expose ESG behaviour carried out by the organization, and therefore by its personnel.
Each organization must develop policies and processes on effluent and solid waste management, perform diagnostic reviews against leading best practice, review the organization’s adequacy to manage inherent ESG risks, assess regulatory compliance, and assess operational compliance levels across the organization. In relation to water and effluents, the organization should use management systems and utility bills to measure water abstraction, water use efficiency, and wastewater management. The organization should do the same for general waste, chemical waste, and hazardous waste. Companies in the telecommunications, insurance and banking sectors, in dealing with waste management, should pay special attention to electronic waste management.
The disclosures required enable an organization to provide information on how it prevents waste generation and how it manages waste that cannot be prevented, in its own activities and upstream (that is, its suppliers) and downstream (that is, distributing to its customers and their consuming the produce of the organization) in its value chain.
The quantity, type, and quality of waste generated by an organization is a consequence of the activities involved in the production of its products and services (e.g., extraction, processing, procurement of materials, product or service design, production, distribution) and their subsequent consumption. An assessment of how materials move into, through, and out of the organization can help understand where in the organization’s value chain these materials eventually become waste.This provides a holistic overview of waste generation and its causes, which in turn can support the organization in identifying opportunities for waste prevention and for adopting circularity measures. In this way, the organization can go beyond mitigating and remediating negative impacts once waste has been generated and move towards managing waste as a resource.
The organization is required to report on inputs that it receives from entities upstream in its value chain, as well as outputs it provides to entities downstream in its value chain. For example, if an organization procures components with hazardous characteristics from a supplier and uses these in a product that will continue to carry these components and their hazardous characteristics, the organization is required to report these components under inputs that lead or could lead to significant waste-related impacts. Similarly, if an organization sells to consumers products that generate large quantities of packaging waste, it is required to report this packaging under outputs that lead or could lead to significant waste-related impacts.
I do not want to go into all the technicalities of GRI 306: Waste 2020, but I would like us to think about waste prevention. If you have ever been out in the streets in Kigali, Rwanda, at 5:50 am you see all the streetlights in the city go off (Rwanda time is one hour behind Kenya time: the sun rises later in Rwanda: 5:50 Rwanda is 6:50 Kenya time). In Nairobi you see streetlights on when the sun is blazing down at midday. Kenyans know how to turn lights on but few bother to turn them off when the lights are not needed.
In order to reduce waste in organizations, products should be designed with longer lifespans and modular repair options; packaging should be reduced and biodegradable/ recyclable materials should be used; production processes must be streamlined to minimize material off-cuts and rejects. Separate waste at the source (organic, recyclable, hazardous); partner with recycling companies or waste-to-energy initiatives; monitor and audit waste streams to identify reduction opportunities. We speak about the circular economy: reuse production by-products (e.g., using waste heat, scrap materials); offer take-back schemes for used products (e.g., electronics, plastics); redesign business models (leasing, product-as-a-service, sharing platforms). An incredibly important task is to train and retrain, again and again, staff in waste prevention practices; whenever possible, encourage remote work/digital solutions to reduce paper and travel waste; educate customers on product disposal and recycling options; use AI and data analytics to forecast demand accurately (reducing overproduction); adopt lean manufacturing to cut waste; implement digital documentation to minimize paper use.
But even for individuals, if we ALL save a little, we shall save a lot: one shilling saved by every woman, man and child in Kenya will give you Kes 55 million. Parents need to teach their children to avoid being wasteful. In many fee-paying boys’ schools, when a young lad loses something, his parents immediately buy him a replacement. At the end of each term, there are piles of lost items in the school which have not been reclaimed. For you: buy only what you need (avoid impulse buying); choose products with minimal packaging; opt for quality and durability over cheap, short-lived items. Many people will automatically use three, four or five paper towels to dry their hands in hotels and restaurants with no thought as to whether the task could be done with two or even one paper towel. Use reusable bags, bottles, and containers; repair clothes, electronics, or furniture instead of replacing them; repurpose glass jars, boxes, and packaging; sort household waste into recyclables (plastics, glass, paper, metals); compost food scraps and garden waste; support recycling initiatives in your community; go digital (reduce printing and paper use); buy in bulk to minimize packaging; share, borrow, or rent items instead of owning everything.
GRI 306 states that disposal is the least preferable option in the waste management hierarchy because of its negative impacts on the environment and human health. Leachate from landfills can contaminate land and water, methane released from the decay of organic waste in landfills contributes to climate change, and uncontrolled burning of waste contributes to air pollution. Disposal prevents the materials present in the waste from being recirculated in the environment and economy, making them unavailable for future use. A friend of mine who lives in Makueni gets water from a well on his property. A neighbor runs a medical disposal business further up the slope on which my friend lives; my friend has found traces of mercury in his water. The Nairobi River contains heavy metals and is used to irrigate vegetable growing farms near Kitui. Is this one of the explanations why so many Kenyans are dying of cancer?
Waste management is crucial because it protects human health by preventing the spread of disease and contamination, safeguards the environment by reducing pollution in air, water, and soil, and conserves natural resources and energy through recycling and reusing materials.
Effective waste management also offers economic benefits by creating jobs and new business opportunities; a glass making company in Tanzania, Kioo Limited, (which will soon move into Kenya) pays youths for any glass they bring into the company; the youths break the glass to make transporting more efficient. All of us need to be aware that our actions have an effect on the wellbeing of our fellow country women and men. Once again, accountants should be in the lead.
The writer is a Fellow of ICPAK
