Firm taps advertising revenue in city using solar-powered garbage bins

He would have retired as an accountant after working for the Canadian government but Mohez Alibhai left the public service to pursue his interest in environmental conservation.

This exit paved the way for him to become an entrepreneur who is now raking in Sh1 million every month from advertisements placed on his solar-powered garbage bins that also double up as advertising space.

“I am a chartered accountant and have worked for the Canadian government for 25 years. I left employment to do research on solar and I introduced solar system into the recycling bin in 2009,” Mr Alibhai told Money.

Unlike the conventional garbage bins, the eco-recycling one is made of steel and is divided into different compartments based on the type of garbage that is to be disposed of. The idea is to make waste separation simple and enable EnvironSolar, the company he has set up to collect plastics and bottles that are then passed on to recycling firms with the am of keeping the environment free of non-biodegradable waste.

At the top of the bins is a panel that is used to harness solar energy, which is stored in an in-built system within the bin. This solar energy is used to illuminate the sides of the bin at night where there are advertising panels.

Mr Alibhai says he would have settled for electricity to illuminate the advertising panels at night. However, he steered clear of electricity because it is expensive and unreliable, especially outages during the dry season when Kenya Power is forced to procure power from diesel generators, which comes with an extra fuel cost charge.

ALL WEATHER BINS

“The bins perform very well under all kinds of Kenyan weather. My target is to introduce solar and an environment that is free of oils and other expensive resources for energy,” said Mr Alibhai, who has also patented his business idea.

Each bin costs $10,000 (about Sh874,000). At the pilot stage which took place in December 2011, he shipped in two such bins. Early this year, he made another shipment of 25 bins.

These bins are currently located at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, Galleria shopping mall, Valley Arcade shopping centre, the Junction mall, KICC, and the Prestige Plaza along Ngong Road. Some of the bins are to be delivered to the Kenya Sugar Board.

According to Mr Alibhai, he has invested Sh40 million in the business, money that he sourced from equity. The investment is expected to grow once another shipment of 25 bins arrives at the port by the end of this month. He is targeting the United Nations Environmental Programme (Unep) offices, shopping malls in Mombasa, and a number of hotels as locations where the bins will be strategically placed.

Neither Mr Alibhai nor the owners of the locations where the bins are placed charges the other. However, to place an advertisement on the bin, one pays Sh40,000 per month to his EnvironSolar.
He says EnvironSolar plans to set up a 50 megawatt solar power plant around Kitengela at a projected cost of $35 million.

“I am doing a lot of research on solar and this is not limited to the recycling units but also on solar PV applications and also supplying power to the national grid,” said Mr Alibhai.

Though a study conducted by his company revealed that Nairobi has a potential of accommodating more than 500 such bins, Mr Alibhai said that increased vandalism within the city has always been a challenge to the company’s target of achieving this investment.

As a result, he has been restricted to placing the bins at upmarket locations where their security is almost guaranteed.