Recycling toxic agricultural waste creates employment and improves environment

Kivaisi, A. 2011. Recycling toxic agricultural waste creates employment and improves environment. Video. Nairobi, Kenya: ILRI.

For hundreds of years, coffee and sisal have been grown across large areas of Kenya, Tanzania and Ethiopia. Each year, this produces thousands of tons of toxic waste and slowly-degrading by-products such as fibres, which are left on the land, and end up by polluting both the soil and water. Now new bioscience techniques have developed ways to use these waste products for mushroom production. This process reduces toxins, breaks down the fibres, and leaves the residues suitable for bio-gas production—a huge asset in East Africa where many parts suffer from energy shortages. Overall, millions of people could benefit (Amelia Kivaisi, Bio-Innovate Environmental Consortium Project Principal Investigator in Tanzania).