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Africa's pumped-up search for value in end-of-life tyres

June 17, 2026

Dear subscriber,

Growing mobility creates a mounting tyre waste challenge. Quietly, beyond familiar recycling approaches, an industrial shift is emerging, where discarded tyres are explored as inputs for energy and manufacturing processes rather than simply waste to manage.

Mercy Maina – Editor

As African countries grapple with growing end-of-life tyre waste, attention is shifting to its industrial potential. In South Africa, GeT Metal Group has launched a waste-to-energy initiative converting discarded tyres into industrial fuel, which is used to replace conventional furnace oil in its aluminium recycling operations.

  • Rising vehicle ownership, along with increased imports of used vehicles and tyres, is intensifying pressure on end-of-life tyre management systems across African markets. 

  • South Africa is estimated to generate between 11 million and 16 million end-of-life tyres annually, while Nigeria produces nearly 10 million and Tanzania more than 7 million, highlighting both the scale of the waste management challenge and the opportunity for recycling, recovery and industrial reuse. 

  • Our take: Industrial users may prove more important than recyclers in scaling tyre recovery markets.… Read more (2 min)

As the 11th Our Ocean Conference continues in Mombasa, experts from IFAW argue that Kenya's fight against marine plastic pollution will be won inland. They contend that stronger waste management systems, effective producer responsibility schemes and upstream policy interventions are essential to preventing plastic from reaching the ocean.

  • The article is authored by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW)’s Victor Murunga, PMEL Manager; Lillian Mulupi, Project Manager for Marine Conservation; and Ben Wandago, Kenya Country Director. Their work focuses on marine conservation, wildlife protection, and community-based approaches to addressing conservation challenges.

  • “For years, marine conservation efforts have focused on beach cleanups, ocean skimming, and reactive waste collection. These efforts are visible and important, but they do not address the structural drivers of pollution. The core issue lies upstream,” they write.

  • Read the full opinion article here (2 min)

The multi-billion-dollar opportunity hidden in Africa's waste

Recent reports estimating the value of waste sectors in Ghana and Morocco have renewed attention on a question that would have seemed unusual a decade ago: How much is Africa’s waste worth? As investors and policymakers shift their view of waste from a burden to an economic asset, the opportunity appears to run into billions.

  • Africa’s waste sector is shifting from municipal cost burden to an emerging driver of jobs, revenue, and industrial development across rapidly urbanising economies. 

  • Waste streams are increasingly being quantified and segmented as distinct, investable material categories with measurable, scalable commercial value. 

  • Our take: The opportunity rests on a legacy-free competitive advantage, but execution depends entirely on policy enforcement…Read more (2 min)

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Source: Ferdinand Omondi

An artwork by Greenpeace Africa on a beach in Mombasa ahead of the OOC11

Events

📦 Sign up for KEPRO Sustainable Packaging Exchange in Kenya (June 23)

🪪 Network at WasteCon 2026 in South Africa (October 20)

Jobs

🧕 Coordinate a national circular economy project at UNDP (Morocco)

🧑‍💼 Manage recycling operations at Interwaste (South Africa)

👷 Handle hazardous waste at Amentum (Kenya)

🧕Serve as a Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) Worker at Amentum (Nairobi)

👷 Work as a waste water engineer at SLR Consulting (Ghana)

Various 

⁉️ Banned, but everywhere: How Kenya's world-famous plastic bag ban unravelled

✅ 2026 FNF Afri GreenPitch Challenge application open

👗 Report debunks myths around second second hand exports to Africa

💰 Ghana could generate $3 billion annually from its waste sector by 2032, study 

♻️ Morocco’s recycled textile waste can create 30,000 jobs, $2 billion investments

Seen on LinkedIn 

GAIA Africa, a global alliance fighting for a zero waste world, says, “As African civil society strives to drive action on waste trade as an urgent environmental and social justice issue, it is important to examine the global and regional instruments that govern waste trade, their weaknesses, and areas of complementarity and effectiveness.”