Kenya’s builders discover value in what they used to throw away
By Philip Mwangangi
The construction industry in Kenya faces three converging pressures: a housing deficit exceeding two million units, mounting environmental regulations, and a waste crisis in which 60 per cent of materials are poorly managed. Yet from Nairobi’s industrial outskirts to university research labs, practitioners are responding not with rhetoric but with functioning alternatives. Buildings are rising from mushroom roots. Plastic waste is becoming structural panels. Old regulations blocking reuse are being rewritten. The common thread connecting these developments is simple: materials once considered waste are now being treated as assets.
This shift represents more than environmental compliance. Principal Secretary in charge of the State Department for Environment and Climate Change, Festus Ng’eno has asserted that “the circular economy is the answer to the big challenge posed by solid waste in Kenya,” noting that circular practices encourage reduction, reuse and recycling at scale. He points out the country generated around 8 million tonnes of waste in 2023 and that the circular economy could help reduce that volume by returning materials to productive use.
The legal foundation: Building codes and material memory
For decades, Kenya’s construction sector operated under a blanket prohibition. Section 33 of the old Building Code stated categorically: “Unless the council otherwise agrees, no second-hand material shall be used.” The regulation, unchanged since 1968, effectively criminalised circular construction practices before they could develop.
The new National Building Code of 2024, taking effect in February 2025, removes this barrier. According to research published in the Journal of Circular Economy, the new code “is anticipated to usher in a new era of sustainable practices in the construction sector” by eliminating the indiscriminate ban on used materials. The change creates legal space for projects previously impossible to permit.
The policy shift aligns with broader momentum in Kenya’s move towards a circular economy. Carole Kariuki, CEO of the Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA), describes how circularity has progressed “from theory to practice, from pilots to programmes, from Nairobi to counties, and from waste management to full systems redesign.” She emphasises that circular economy strategies now drive innovation and strengthen manufacturing.
Kenya’s Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) regulations, part of the Sustainable Waste Management Act 2022, require producers to take responsibility for the lifecycle of their products, including reuse and recycling. Eng. Ng’eno underscores that the regulations apply to all producers introducing products to the Kenyan market, calling on companies to adopt designs that enable reuse, refill, repurpose and recycling.
Yet despite legislative progress, enforcement remains a concern. Some industry advocates have warned that delays in implementing these EPR rules risk compounding waste management challenges. The Kenya Plastics Pact emphasises that “prolonged delays in implementing these vital regulations will only exacerbate our country’s waste management challenges.”
Growing buildings: mycelium and agricultural waste
Near Nairobi, MycoTile operates what may be Kenya’s most unusual construction facility. The company processes 250 tonnes of agricultural waste annually, combining it with mycelium to produce building panels. Founder Mtamu Kililo said his idea first took shape during a fellowship in Kigali. “The used substrates looked like brick and I thought I could use those in the building industry,” he said, describing how initial experiments grew into commercial production of roughly 3,000 square metres of material each month.
The technical process is straightforward. Agricultural waste from rice husks, coffee chaff and sawdust is pasteurised and introduced to a mycelium matrix, which binds the waste into dense panels that function as insulation, wall cladding and interior finishes. Architect and sustainability expert Nickson Otieno said that sustainable biogenic materials are “desirable because they have a low carbon footprint and potentially contribute no emissions. Construction is one of the major emitters.”
Residents who have lived in homes built with such panels report positive experiences. Street vendor Jedidah Murugi says: “There is no huge difference in the quality of the houses made from brick and these boards… The house is not cold at night and neither is it hot during the day.”
Plastic as infrastructure: industrial scale and social impact
In contrast to mycelium’s biological elegance, some enterprises focus on industrial uses of waste. While specific companies such as Kubik have not yet published widely documented public statements, Kenya has seen multiple innovators turning waste plastic into construction materials. For example, Joseph Muita of Constructive Plastics Limited explained that garbage can become “gold,” transforming dirty plastic waste into strong construction products such as paving blocks, poles and interlocking units. He emphasised the environmental imperative: “Waste has the potential of creating houses for millions of homeless people while curbing pollution in the process.”
Officials have recognised the environmental benefits. Dr Nelson Maara, Nakuru County’s Environment CECM, says that using plastics in building materials can both reduce pollution and address high construction costs, noting that one kilogramme of plastic waste saves about 2.5 kilograms of carbon emissions.
Elsewhere in the construction sector, Kenyan scientist Hope Mwanake, co‑founder of Eco Blocks & Tiles, explains that waste plastic could be repurposed into building products to reduce landfill volumes and create value. Her work, supported by government encouragement for greener construction, has helped expand the market for recycled materials.
Data, measurement and market signals
Behind material innovation lies a less visible but equally significant shift: the rise of systems that make environmental performance legible. Kenya has seen rapid uptake of the EDGE (Excellence in Design for Greater Efficiencies) certification system, created by the International Finance Corporation. The system allows developers to assess environmental and economic impacts of design decisions across energy, water and materials use.
By March 2025, Kenya had surpassed one million square metres of EDGE‑certified space, spanning residential, commercial and institutional projects. The milestone indicates that quantification tools once accessible only to large firms are becoming part of mainstream development decision‑making.
Financing mechanisms are following data infrastructure. Multilateral development banks, including the IFC, World Bank and African Development Bank, have used concessional loans and blended‑finance facilities to help local banks and developers manage risk while promoting certification systems. Commercial lenders including KCB Group, Stanbic Bank, Standard Chartered and Absa have launched sustainability‑linked lending and green loan programmes.
Kenya’s EPR regulations mandate recycled‑content thresholds and minimum feedstock prices. Without consistent enforcement and compliance tools, however, producers may treat fines as routine costs rather than reshaping supply chains. As one analysis of Kenya’s circular future warned: “without this market security, investors will hesitate, capital will stall, and Kenya will remain trapped in the expensive improvisation cycle that has defined the past decade.”
Ubuntu and systems thinking
At the 10th Circular Economy Conference, participants repeatedly returned to Ubuntu, the African philosophy often translated as “I am because we are.” Conference organisers said this concept connected circular economy principles to collective responsibility in ways that technical specifications cannot.
They noted that “when circular innovation is rooted in Ubuntu, solutions such as repair networks, community recycling hubs, waste‑reduction systems and sustainable product redesign become more inclusive, culturally grounded and socially equitable.” This perspective challenges Western circular economy models that emphasise individual consumption choices over community‑level systems.
The regional context
Kenya’s efforts unfold within a competitive regional landscape. Uganda’s plastics legislation remains contested; Tanzania is progressing but enforcement remains weak; Rwanda has strict bans but limited recycling infrastructure. Kenya, by contrast, has an active plastics pact, clear EPR regulations, a dense private‑sector ecosystem, and a national conversation on circularity more advanced than many of its neighbours.
Yet leadership requires more than policy documents. As one analysis put it, “Kenya will not lead East Africa by having the best policy documents; it will lead by having the most functional system.” That system depends on reliable feedstock flows, predictable investment signals and integration of informal waste pickers who currently recover the bulk of recyclable material.
What success requires
Material innovation alone cannot deliver transformation. The past year of development in Kenya’s construction sector reveals five necessary conditions for scaling circular and biomaterial approaches.
First, regulatory clarity. The new building code opens legal space, but implementation requires trained inspectors, updated engineering standards and legal precedents on material liability.
Second, finance architecture. Blended finance structures that combine public, private and philanthropic capital while managing first‑loss risk will determine whether pilot projects scale to industrial production.
Third, technical capacity. Architects, engineers, contractors and building officials need training in material properties, assembly techniques and performance verification for products outside conventional specifications.
Fourth, market mechanisms. EPR regulations with mandatory recycled‑content thresholds, minimum feedstock prices and transparent compliance dashboards can give private capital the long‑term certainty it needs.
Fifth, social infrastructure. Waste collectors, local craftsmen and second‑hand material sellers are the human backbone of circular systems. Their exclusion from formal banking and guaranteed earnings undermines the entire value chain.
The 10th Circular Economy Conference concluded with recognition that transformation must be a shared journey. The event itself was designed as a zero‑waste experience, with vegan meals, refillable water stations and reusable materials, “setting the tone for a circular future that can look like practice.”
What happens next depends on whether Kenya can convert momentum into infrastructure. Mycelium panels and plastic bricks remain niche products. Building codes require implementation. EPR regulations need enforcement. Finance mechanisms must deliver capital to projects that lack conventional collateral. The technical pieces exist. The question is whether legal, financial and institutional systems can adapt quickly enough to support them at scale.
For Kenya, the stakes extend beyond environmental metrics. With population growth accelerating urbanisation and a housing crisis leaving millions in informal settlements, the construction sector will either lock in carbon‑intensive pathways for generations or show that development and sustainability can advance together. The buildings rising today may provide the answer.
