Keep Ethiopia Beautiful

Addis Ababa is one of the largest cities in Africa. With nearly five million inhabitants, the issue of waste disposal is a chronic concern. Keep Ethiopia Beautiful or KEP for short, is a dedicated organization committed to contributing toward the beautification of Addis Ababa and other cities through a labor intensive program. Capital’s Kirubel Tadesse discussed the project with Ermias Mekonnen, General Manager and Abebe H. Davis, Operations Manager. Excerpts follow:

Capital: How did you conceive the idea and then make it practical?
Ermias Mekonnen: The idea was conceived based on something I had seen while growing up in United States and our love for our and added a twist in the program. We made it into a center that can hire many people than done in America where it is all about business. So instead of making advertising money we chose sponsorship. What this means is that there is poverty reduction involved and of course the main goal is the beautification and cleaning up of the city. Those are two main objectives of Keep Ethiopia Beautiful. It was initiated six months ago; we designed the trashcan and gave it to metal workers. They gave us a prototype and we took that prototype along with our proposal to the Addis Ababa City Caretaker Administration. We were then directed to the Sanitation, Beautification, Parks and Development Agency. At that point we managed to sign a five year contract. I hope it will work out well we as are hiring a lot of metal workers and a number of sanitation people and we plan to employ many more. We have now fourteen employees but at full projection we will create job opportunities for more than three hundred people.

Capital: Is the trashcan entirely produced locally?
Ermias Mekonnen: It is all done here locally. Every material necessary to make the trashcan is purchased from local markets. Starting from the design to the production, every thing is ours. What we want the community to understand is that more than advertising, it is about giving back to the city. We tell all the media to support the project along side the sponsors. When one sponsors, it shouldn’t be only advertising. Anybody could put up a billboard, but what makes their contribution unique is that they are helping to clean the city and creating job opportunities.

Capital: Most trashcans in Addis are clean since most residents don’t put trash in but rather drop it in the street. How do you plan to educate residents?
Ermias Mekonnen: I understand that the previous attempts which were putting wastebaskets in the streets of Addis have been unsuccessful. What makes ours different in sustainability is that we have dedicated employees. We are not just erecting bins, there is one employee assigned for every three dustbins. What the employees do is maintain them within a twenty meter radius. If you observe them, they are usually clean because our employees are there all day, from nine in the morning to five in the evening. Everyday in the morning before traffic starts, every trashcan is cleaned and disposed of properly, we can maintain this consistently through our sponsors by hiring employees permanently.

Capital: How many trashcans do you have in the city?
Ermias Mekonnen: We put one about every fifty meters, Right now we are close to having one hundred trashcans. After this weekend we will go to the university area which is in Arada Sub City. Our plan is to put six hundred trashcans around the city. We know it won’t be enough but this is potentially a very big project. If you just take the CMS area it needs a lot. We also plan to take the project to other cities, according to our original proposal.

Capital: How do you select where to put the trashcans? Do you provide the trashcans to schools, governmental institutions and other organizations?
Ermias Mekonnen: We place them in the best possible locations on all the roads. Sponsors can get involved in area selection as far as selling the trashcans is concerned. The fees sponsors pay will be used first to build the trashcans and hire employees. It is really a good way for companies to use their money. I hope that many will support it. I have started it with my personal investment of one hundred thousand birr and I think it will be used by many as a means to create job opportunity for many youth. Rather than simply distributing the trashcans we want to place them and manage them so that they don’t have to worry about it at all.

Capital: Some people say that the trashcans are too nice to put trash in to?
Ermias Mekonnen: We have heard that comment. Some people have asked us why we made it so nice but we think that our country is ready for it. Ethiopia is definitely on the move and it is done in other countries so there is no reason why we shouldn’t do it here. It won’t be difficult for the people to know what it is because the employees are there. When they constantly see them they can easily understand and we also have our logo on it. It is going to take a little time but people are going to learn and accept it.

Capital: Which organizations are currently working with you?
Ermias Mekonnen: Right now Green international Logistics Services, DKT Ethiopia and NAS Foods are some of the companies involved in this project. We have different packages offered to our sponsors; a three, six month, and one year packages. After one pays the fee, they get a very full digital 40*70 sign on it. It is placed on the dustbin and put at any location the sponsor wishes.

Capital: How did you become involved in the project?
Abebe H. Davis: One can easily see that most trashcans in the city are either damaged or not in the places they are supposed to be. Most of them need to be replaced. This and the love for my city is the reason for me to involve in this project. Ermias came up with this great idea and we sat down and talked it over. We recivied very positive cooperation and acceptance from the city administration.

Capital: There have been many trials including the famous Gash Abera Molla projet, but our city is still not clean. Why do you think your project can be successful?
Abebe H. Davis: We don’t ask too much from people. We don’t ask payment of any kind from nearby institutions or organizations where we place the trashcans. We manage and clean the trashcans. Our hope is that the people will learn to put the trash in the dustbins but even if they don’t we will clean the area because it is our job. But at sometime people would feel awkward to throw the trash in the street while everything around is clean. I am sure this will happen.

Capital: Any final words?
Ermias Mekonnen: We thank the city administration for the quick support they gave to our project. I have done business in many countries including in Atlanta where I have a real estate investment but the Addis Ababa City Administration has been excellent. We thank them and if anybody wishes to work with us, they can contact us through 0911- 88 25 42 or at gm@keb-plc.com. We gladly accept ideas.