UMA spearheads move to cut production waste

Uganda Manufacturers’ Association (UMA) has started discussions in which it seeks to promote production without generating waste.

The discussions, which are ongoing in partnership with the African Circular Economy Network, will engage manufacturers on how to reduce on resource wastage and smart production.

Speaking during a consultative meeting, Mr Dean Tashobya, the country representative of the African Circular Economy Network said world over, manufacturers are using a lot of resources compared to what is available to produce. But the concept of the circular economy will ensure that what factories consider as waste, is a raw material for another production process to promote a healthy environment.

“When you peel matooke, the organic peelings are not thrown away but used as manure or animal feeds from which human beings get food. When a phone gets a broken screen, repair and give someone else to use it and if not you cannot repair it, remove the gold and copper in the phone rather than extracting more material from the earth,” he said adding that to manufacture a new phone, it calls for extraction of more natural resources which can easily get depleted.

Mr Cyprian Mugisa, the UMA programme officer for projects and training, said the circular economy concept is a type of production circle where at the end of any production cycle, the by-products are still useful for the environment.

“In the case of agriculture, when we would grow crops, the food we harvest and eat is disposed as waste which fertilises the environment, but industrialisation has not been able to do this,” he said, adding that whereas the traditional production mechanisms promoted fertilisation, industrialisation has come with challenges such as water pollution.