A Community-led Waste Conversion Project is Rethinking ‘Zero-Waste’ Picture a place where there is more litter-covered ground than open space, and you have Kibera; the largest urban slum in Nairobi. Now imagine a world where this waste is seen as the solution, not the problem. Taka Taka Zero is rethinking the zero-waste movement. We take non-recyclable waste off the streets of Nairobi’s slums, and convert it to thermal energy in a safe and sustainable outdoor stove called the Community Cooker which incinerates at 800-1200°C and reaches 95% complete combustion efficiency. By removing rotting piles of rubbish from landfills, we are reducing methane emissions, thereby saving the carbon equivalent of cutting down 3000 mature trees per year (a small forest!). At the same time, we are pioneering a new attitude towards waste; rubbish as a renewable resource. This raises a challenge: how do you harness this clever technology in a community where people’s most pressing thought is not ‘how can I reduce my carbon footprint’, but rather ‘‘where will I get my next meal’? At Taka Taka Zero, we realized that effective climate action needs to be specific, practical and sensitive to the context and community. We saw an opportunity to take a ubiquitous problem, the abundance of waste in low-income areas, and use it to tackle food insecurity and youth unemployment, two intimately linked social issues in slum communities. The Community Cooker powers our Zero-Waste Feeding Programme and Sustainable Business, where we use non-recyclable material to fuel the cooking of school meals and bread baking at Mathare Community Outreach School. The project is run by local youths, who are trained in waste management and taught basic business skills. We are handing the power back to the community to create long-term social and environmental impact through behavior change. Currently, our pilot is feeding 320 children with 3200 meals per week, and employing 12 young people to trouble-shoot our bread bakery. Our biggest challenges are (a) collecting enough waste to fuel the cooker on a daily basis (up to 300kg) (b) obtaining food surplus from local supermarkets to sustainably supplement the school’s food supply and (c) raising enough funds to build a new cooker in Kibera. We look to the collective power of the We Don’t Have Time community for connection and inspiration to make our project all the more impactful. Ideas and partnerships are welcome! Check out our website to learn exactly how Taka Taka Zero is fuelling sustainable futures using waste conversion: takatakazero.org Instagram: @takatakazero Linkedin: TakaTaka Zero