Service Information

CONTAINER MANAGEMENT AND OBSOLETE STOCKS

AAK is a responsible entity, whose members subscribe to the international code of conduct. We therefore recognize our responsibility and role in securing the environmental fate of the pesticides we trade in.

AAK has set up mechanisms to safeguard empty pesticide containers as well as obsolete pesticides. AAK has been running an Empty Pesticide Container (EPC) management programme in Kenya since 2014. The association uses its resources to support the project in 11 counties where EPC’s are aggregated in over 514 collection centres and disposed by incineration. The counties are; Makueni, Nakuru, Taita Taveta, Trans Nzoia, Nyeri, Embu, Nyandarua, Kakamega, Homa Bay, Kirinyaga and Meru.

During the period of operation, over 500 Tons of EPC have been collected for disposal at the Environmental Combustion Consultants Limited (ECCL) facility in Kajiado, Kenya. Collections are made at least twice a year.

Guided by our strategic plan for 2016-2020, AAK intends to roll out a national Empty pesticide container collection scheme which shall be in line with the legal requirements as outlined in the Waste management Bill. AAK also looks forward to setting up a sustainable recycling mechanism which shall complement the EPC collection scheme.

In 2008- 2014, Kenya participated in the Africa Stockpiles project/ Clean farms run by FAO. It involved getting inventory of obsolete pesticide stocks, safeguarding the material in Kenya and disposal.

Partners in the project were: AAK, Ministry of Agriculture, PCPB, Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, FAO and CropLife International.

Some stocks dated back to independence and were held in farms and storage facilities. They consisted of Expired and banned products. The project culminated in the dispatch of 222 Metric Tons of obsolete stocks destined to UK for specialized disposal at a cost of USD 1,000,000.

Increased demand for pesticides in agricultural production in the past decade, procurement policies and counterfeiters could have led to another stockpiling of obsolete stocks in the country.

AAK is taking proactive steps to prevent stockpiling of obsolete stocks by taking regular inventory of possible obsolete stocks from among the stakeholders, (both public and private).