Noel Nizeyimana is the Chief Executive of Greencare Rwanda ltd, a company he co-founded with three other young entrepreneurs (Francis Mizinduko, Christian Ruzindana, and Jean Paul Iyakaremye), after graduating at University of Rwanda in 2015. 

The entrepreneurs use waste especially plastics and sachets that they heat and mix with sand to make bricks and pavers.

This has enabled them to offer employment opportunities to a number of Rwandans, yet keeping the environment clean.

Noel Nizeyimana, CEO of Greencare Rwanda ltd

Although they had different expertise in soil and environment management, civil engineering and crops science, they were committed to reshape the waste management in Rwanda by converting existing systems of solid waste management "landfilling” into industrial recycling plants. 

The company was officially registered in 2016 and licensed in 2017 by Rwanda Development Board (RDB) and Rwanda Utility and Regulations Authority (RURA) respectively. 

While dealing with urban agriculture, and solid waste management issues as part of their undergraduate program in Soil and Environment Management and Civil Engineering, the four business partners saw that the waste management situation in Huye city, where their campus was located, was not well managed. 

According to Nizeyimana, the waste collection services were poorly organized; the small quantity of waste collected was disposed of in unhygienic ways.

For instance, the waste was piled up mostly in the streets and in unmanaged landfill sites, creating several serious health and social threats, including diseases, insufferable odour, leakage of pollutants into water sources, methane gas, and exposing the waste-collectors to toxic and hazardous substances, he said. 

In collaboration with Huye District, the entrepreneurs worked together to discover a sustainable solution for solid waste management by organizing waste collectors and transforming all waste generated at Huye recycling plants. 

"75 per cent of waste received at the facility is biodegradable waste, which has been converted into packaged organic compost branded ‘Grekompost’ by using a windrow composting system and 20 per cent is plastics and sachets,” Nizeyimana stated.

The co-founders transform ecological pavers and bricks by mixing appropriate ratio of plastics to sand under a desired temperature. 

Today they have a production capacity of 400 tons of compost per year and 2,560 meters squared of ecological pavers per year. They have employed 25 permanent young men and women working in compost and ecological pavers production.

The entrepreneurs also work with five agro dealers companies that distribute GreKompost to the farmers across the country.

Just like any business, challenges are inevitable. Among their day to day challenges include insufficient skills and knowledge on the best technology for solid waste management. 

"Lack of stakeholder’s inclusivity for solid waste management implementation, lack of a proprietary model or policy for funding and financing solid waste management projects is still a problem,” Nizeyimana emphasised.

The young businessmen also claim that there is a shortage of policies regarding integrated solid waste management, for example, currently solid waste management system used is waste collection, transportation and landfilling.

This system, they say, leads to waste resources by dumping the waste; the waste produces toxic gases, and contaminated underground water by heavy metals. Landfilling areas reduce the land available for agriculture and are a breeding ground for bacteria which can cause many diseases to the communities surrounding the facility for example, Nduba landfill in Kigali. 

The entrepreneurs also lack clear policy regarding manufactured organic fertilizers use due to the low number of industries engaged in compost production at industrial scale, thus leading to the lack of market, subsidies and distribution channel.

They highlighted that manufactured organic fertilizers need to be regularized as well as chemical fertilizers in order to promote organic fertilizers and Made in Rwanda.

The businessmen are calling upon the government to adopt integrated solid waste management in different districts, for instance, waste generation, collection, and waste treatment through Reduce, Reuse, Recycle system.  

They are also urging the government to develop policies and regulations regarding integrated solid waste management from waste generation to waste treatment.