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What a Nairobi ruling means for Africa’s informal waste economy

February 11, 2026

Dear subscriber,

Informal waste pickers are the oil that greases Africa’s circular economy, often at a heavy personal cost. This week, we unpack the ripple effects of a landmark ruling on waste picker rights and on-the-ground insights from a renowned e-waste hub.

Mercy Maina – Editor

Over 1,000 waste pickers in Kenya were awarded $195,000 by the High Court on February 5th after judges ruled that prolonged exposure to air pollution at the Dandora dumpsite violated their constitutional right to a clean, healthy environment. The decision marks a turning point for Africa’s circular transition, long dependent on informal waste recovery.

  • The ruling affirms that environmental rights apply regardless of employment status, bringing informal recyclers into the legal frame as rights-holders rather than invisible participants in waste systems.

  • By linking liability to exposure and regulatory inaction, the decision pressures governments to reform informal waste systems, highlighting the legal and financial risks of tolerated informality.

  • Our take: Companies operating near informal recovery hubs may face increased legal and financial exposure if they fail to safeguard workers or mitigate environmental risks… Read more (2 min)

As Africa navigates a circular transition, Brandon Marc Finn of the University of Michigan warns that the continent’s informal e-waste economy exposes a central contradiction in global circularity where the very systems that keep materials circulating also concentrate environmental and health risks among informal workers.

  • Mr Finn is an Assistant Research Scientist at the University of Michigan’s School for Environment and Sustainability and leads the Informal Sustainability Lab, an interdisciplinary research group focused on informality and sustainability. He led the research team behind a recent study called The Informal Paradox: Electronic Waste and the Toxic Circular Economy in Ghana, which examined e-waste recycling in Agbogbloshie, often described as one of the world’s largest e-waste dumps.

  • In an interview with Circular Rising, the urbanisation and informality scholar breaks down the study’s findings, highlighting the “informal paradox” of Ghana’s e-waste sector, a dynamic that resonates across Africa, where informal recycling sustains livelihoods while concentrating pollution and health burdens in spaces beyond effective regulation.

  • Find the full conversation here (2 min)

Denmark-based consultancy NTU International has, for the third consecutive month, topped circular economy recruitment across Africa, posting 92 of the 111 advertised roles. Specialising in programme management, primarily for EU-funded projects, the firm is recruiting  junior and senior experts across 52 African countries.

  • The firm is hiring industrial processes experts, product life-cycle management and ecodesign specialists, and engineering and technological solutions experts for an upcoming EU circular economy and water facility programme.

  • In January 2026, it advertised 21 roles for engineering and technological solutions experts, following 28 roles for circular economy policy and legal experts advertised in December 2025 for the same project.

  • Explore the latest openings across Africa’s circular sector here (2 min)

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Source: Africa.com

Cold-in-situ recycling train being pioneered in road construction in South Africa

Events

🗓️ Participate in the Nigeria Circular Economy Week (Feb 16) 

🗓️ Register for the Where is Circular Innovation South Africa now? webinar (Feb 19)

🗓️ Attend the Africa Green Economy Summit (Feb 24) 

🗓️ Network at the Kenya LOOP Forum (Circular Economy & Expo) (Feb 25)

🗓️ Be at the West African Clean Energy & Environment Trade Fair (Mar 17)

Various 

🗣️ Kenya unveils plan for a major overhaul of Dandora dumpsite

💰 OceanHub Africa announces $120K call for bold plastic circularity ideas

🥸 South Africa revises packaging waste framework

🗑️ Lagos plans compulsory waste sorting at source to boost recycling

🏭 Mandela University drives first African university-led waste-to-energy research

Seen on LinkedIn 

Bob Kennedy, a waste picker in Kenya, says, “There is an ongoing silent “cold war” around closing Dandora Dumpsite. Let us be honest. Closing the dumpsite without a just transition plan is not environmental justice, it is economic violence against thousands of families who depend on it for survival.