Plastic recycling and PET in Mogadishu

Where Xidig members may contribute

Service and collaboration openings, not confirmed contracts or tenders:

• Collection networks that pay collectors fairly and safely, with protective equipment and regular prices.
• Sorting, washing and baling PET for sale to recyclers, in Somalia or the region.
• Recycled-plastic products: paving, tiles and posts, which need power at an affordable price. Solar could help.
• Take-back with water bottlers: a voluntary deposit or collection scheme.
• Data: tracking prices paid per kilo and the volumes collected.

Possible services, research, supplier or collaboration roles

• A collection-point pilot in one district, with posted prices and records.
• A baling and export study: could clean PET bales be sold to regional recyclers?
• Solar power for recyclers, since high electricity prices limit how much they can process.
• Research on how plastic is used in Mogadishu, starting with the recyclers' own records.

Who may find this useful

• Owners of recycling and small manufacturing businesses.
• Water-bottling companies.
• Community groups and camp coordinators.
• Chemical and materials engineers.
• Environmental and public-health professionals.

What exists today

Who recycles. A 2022 World Bank document for Mogadishu said recycling was "only performed by a private company", which converted plastic "to construction materials, such as floor and roof tiles". Later reports describe that firm and a few others:

• The same recycler, which makes paving stones, bricks and roof tiles and employs over 20 people, said in January 2025 that it collects 30 tonnes of plastic a month but recycles only 20 tonnes "due to higher electric prices" (Bilan Media via Radio Dalsan).
• IOM gave a small scrap business US$4,200 in seed capital. It collects and cleans bottles and sells them to companies that make floor and roof tiles and clothes pegs.
• A Mogadishu housewares factory uses "locally collected plastic waste as raw material" and employs about 150 people (Shuraako, November 2025).
• A Save the Children project reported in June 2025 that a recycler it works with "has already integrated 500 women waste collectors".

Who collects. Much of the collecting is done by displaced women. One told Bilan Media in 2025: "I collect 24 kg of plastic bottles and get nearly 80,000 Somali shillings a day, which is approximately $3." In the Save the Children project, one woman who became a collection-centre operator went from earning about US$35 a week selling food to US$150 a week.

How much is recycled. In a 2026 survey of Mogadishu residents, recycling and reuse made up 4.8% of waste practices, and 46.2% of households dumped waste by the roadside (Frontiers in Sustainability).

Rules. The Ministry of Environment and Climate Change banned plastic bags from 30 June 2024. Police announced enforcement in October 2024, but reporting that month and in December found little sign of it. Xidig found no Somali law making producers responsible for their packaging waste. Kenya brought in such "extended producer responsibility" rules in November 2024, and its rules require plastic packaging manufacturers to use "at least thirty percent total recycled material".

Why bottles don't become bottles. Food-grade recycled PET needs certified decontamination. In the EU, recycled plastic for food contact falls under Regulation 2022/1616 (in force since October 2022), with each process assessed by the food-safety authority. In the US, companies can voluntarily ask the FDA to review a process, which ends in a "no objection" letter. In Kenya, a bottle-to-bottle line near Nairobi, reported in 2023, produces resin for preforms. Xidig found none in Somalia. Everything recycled locally is made into lower-grade products.

Donor interest. An EU and German programme launched in May 2025 (EUR 47.5M in total) covers "green energy and circular economy sectors". It doesn't specifically name plastics.

What this means. The proposed PET preform plant would, for now, run on imported virgin resin. Local recycling can grow through collection and lower-grade products, while a bottle-grade loop remains a longer-term, capital-heavy step.

Dependencies and implementation constraints

• Electricity cost: one recycler says it limits output.
• Sorting at source: mixed waste lowers quality.
• Worker protection: collectors work in hazardous conditions.
• Buyers for bales and products.
• Rules: no local recycled-content or producer-responsibility requirements.

Risks and unknowns

• Scale: plastic import figures are partial (partner-reported only), and Xidig found none for bottled-water use in Somalia.
• Price swings for recycled plastic.
• Food-grade use of recycled PET would need certification that doesn't exist locally.

Questions members should verify before acting

1. How much PET does one district generate each week?
2. What do recyclers pay per kilo, and would they buy more?
3. Would bottlers take part in a take-back scheme?
4. Could bales be sold across the border, and what are the rules?
5. How would collectors' safety and pay be protected?

What is confirmed, and what isn't

Confirmed

• The two proposals and their wording.
• The recyclers, collector earnings and project figures as reported, with dates.
• The 2024 plastic-bag ban, and Kenya's 2024 producer-responsibility rules.
• EU and US rules for food-contact recycled plastic.

Our interpretation

• Collection and lower-grade recycling can grow now. A bottle-grade loop is a later step.

Not yet verified

• Plastic import volumes and bottled-water use.
• Whether the PET plant would use recycled material.

Relevant next steps

• Recyclers and bottlers: consider a joint collection pilot with members.
• Engineers: share experience of PET washing and baling lines.
• Follow MoECC and the Banadir Regional Administration for any plastics rules.