Responding to Community Needs: The Commencement of HUBLINK with Halal Waste Group in Uganda

We have a wealth of evidence demonstrating the positive impact of our Wastepreneur programme. A key driver of this success is our proactive approach—identifying and resolving challenges as soon as they arise to ensure consistent results. This is evidenced by our creation of the HUBLINK project in Uganda.  

At WasteAid, it is vital that our programmes serve the participants first and foremost. To ensure this, we integrate rigorous due diligence and maintain constant communication with waste collectors on the ground. Through these touchpoints, a significant barrier was brought to our attention: many Wastepreneurs lacked access to higher value markets, due to the quality of the aggregation bays.

Without a local hub to consolidate their materials, collectors were often forced to pay high transportation costs to reach distant buyers. In many cases, these costs swallowed their margins entirely, making it impossible to turn out a fair profit from the waste they had worked so hard to collect.  

Rather than compromising the project’s future, we took decisive action to mitigate these risks. We transitioned the project to a new implementation anchor: the Halal Waste Group. 

Halal Waste Group 

The Halal Waste Group (HWG) was set up in 2019, when a few individuals responded to waste clogging drainage channels in their community, from that point onwards the group grew in size, it now includes 33 members and handles roughly 30-35 tonnes of waste material per month.  

Whilst the group clearly demonstrates the power of local people responding to local problems. The group had larger ambition beyond its original scope and soon identified major logistical and infrastructure barriers that limited their efficiency and growth.  

This is where we are able to offer support. By combining our global technical knowledge and resources with HWG’s deep local insights, we are working to scale their impact without losing the “community heart” that made them successful in the first place.  

HUBLINK’s goal is to strengthen the Halal Waste Group as a compliant, community-rooted aggregation and market-linkage hub. By maintaining this local focus while professionalising operations, we aim to: 

• Increase recyclable waste recovery across the region. 

• Improve livelihoods and working conditions for informal waste actors who are the backbone of the system. 

• Reduce unsafe waste disposal within the Rubaga Division of Kampala. 

Convening Community Stakeholders 

To ensure the best possible impact of the HUBLINK project, we recognised immediately the need to bring in other community stakeholders. On April 15th, WasteAid hosted a critical stakeholder engagement meeting with key partners including KCCA, TUNN, and Reclaim. The session was designed to build a shared roadmap for the hub, integrating expert lessons on infrastructure and health and safety into our operational plans. By clarifying the roles of every actor involved, we’ve created a unified front for implementation. This commitment was formalised at the close of the meeting with the official signing of the MoU between WasteAid and HWG. 

The meeting as well as acting as a means to discuss the practicalities of HUBLINK going forward and ensuring its success. There was a palpable sense of momentum in the room, with stakeholders expressing deep enthusiasm for the project’s potential to transform both the local environment and community livelihoods. 

Julius Mayanja, Local Council One Official 

“This hub is coming as a real saver for our environment and for the livelihoods of our people. Even ourchildren already have [got involved] when they see a bottle, they step on it to reduce its size – so we must now match that energy with training, organisation and community awareness.

 

 

Emily Namanya, KCCA Representative
“Wasteaid is a welcome partner in the fight against environmental degradation. If Halal Waste Group needs recognition or accreditation, KCCA is ready to engage, because when informal waste pickers are organised and supported, both the environment and livelihoods improve.” 

 

 

 

Fahad Serumpanise, TUNN
“This project gives Halal Waste Group a chance to move from struggling with space and logistics to operating in a more organised, safer and more business-minded way. Our aspiration is not only to collect waste, but to grow a hub that serves collectors and the wider community.” 

We are excited about the future of HUBLINK. Our ambition is matched only by the dedication of our community partners, and we feel confident in what we can achieve together. By creating impact at both the individual level for waste collectors and across the wider community, we are building better livelihoods and a greener Uganda.

This vital work is made possible through the continued support of Bunzl. We are incredibly grateful for your partnership, which allows us to turn these ambitions into reality and directly scale our impact across the region.