Igara Growers Tea Factory Ltd is in Butare, Kyamuhuga in Uganda. The factory, which was established in 1969, employs some 926 people, out of which 409 are men, 114 women and 403 youths. The factory is made up of small scale tea farmers and processes and sells black tea. The factory has a membership of over 7,000 farmers but just over 3,200 are active. Green solutions such as waste composting has increased the earnings of the factory’s members.
Igara Growers was one of the many beneficiaries of a project, Enhancing Resource Productivity and Environmental Performance of Micro, Small and Medium Sized Enterprises in Uganda through the concept of Industrial Symbiosis, which was started through the support of SWITCH Africa Green programme. The project was implemented by the African Round Table on Sustainable Consumption and Production (ARSCP) in partnership with the Uganda Cleaner Production Centre (UCPC). SWITCH Africa Green programme is funded by the European Union.
During the project life, the factory staff were trained on the concept of resource efficient and cleaner production and industrial symbiosis. Industrial symbiosis in-depth assessment was carried out at the company in order to identify industrial symbiosis synergies for aid in implementation. The Uganda Cleaner Production Centre continuously provided technical support to the company for monitoring of the implementation of identified industrial symbiotic synergies and enable a discussion on the exchange of generated wastes with other companies. Additionally, technical evaluation of implemented industrial symbiosis synergies was also carried out to determine the social, economic and environmental impacts of the exercise.
“When SWITCH Africa Green came into Igara as early as 2016, we got a new system of waste management and segregation,” says Regan Nkwishina, Igara Tea Factory’s standards coordinator. “Waste is segregated, and the decomposing waste is taken as manure to farmers and their fields. It has made a saving on the income that the company earns have increased their pay, and thus their better living.”
As a result, about 600kgs of boiler ash generated per month is now taken on by Presidential Banana Initiative and farmers as manure as opposed to just being taken on by a contractor.
Additionally, about 2,482kgs of tea waste generated per month is now being used as manure in tea gardens as opposed in the past where is was disposed of.
The factory was also supported to address inefficient use of energy and factors that lower energy production. As other separately targeted factories in the region, it was discovered that some parts of the steam distribution system were not insulated resulting to steam leakages. Seasoned flue wood was left in the open and whenever it rained, the calorific value of firewood would be reduced thus increasing wood consumption needed to meet thermo demand. Additionally, excessive heat loses in flue gases and in the condensate that was left to join the waste water stream.
To address those issues, the insulation of the steam network was improved while leaking steam valves were repaired. The factory also constructed a wood shade and introduced use of wood backs and saw dust for rising steam at the boiler start up. The factory installed an economizer to recover heat from flue gases which is used to pre-heat air. Finally, a condensate recovery system was installed, where condensate is recovered to pre-heat feed water to the boiler.
Resulting from the project, there was an improvement of waste management. The quality of the tea improved due to application of organic manure from waste tea, which improved the price for tea leaves.
“I encourage other factories around to implement the SWITCH Africa Green mission so that we can all work hand in hand and we’ll get the environment more and more green and develop the country at last,” Regan concludes.
The factory faced challenges in the establishment of industrial symbiotic synergies for other generated waste wastes generated due to a limited awareness of potential partners involved in industrial symbiosis. However, Igara Tea Factory plans to cooperate more with other companies through industrial symbiosis. The factory also learnt that industrial symbiosis is a very useful tool in achieving economic, social and environmental benefits.
