Eleven years ago, on World Toilet Day, three Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) graduates launched a company, Sanergy Collaborative, which manufactures toilets and eco-fuels.
Ani Vallabhaneni, David Auerbach, and Lindsay Stradley set their sights on informal settlements in Kenya.
They invested Sh12.2 million ($100,000), prize money that they won at the MIT Business Plan Competition.
“Fresh Life focuses on transforming communities and cities through the provision of sanitation solutions,” says Ms Stradley, the executive director at Fresh Life.
The toilets are manufactured at Sameer Business Park in Nairobi using locally-sourced materials.
They can be set outside and used by small communities like say, plots. Others can be fitted into a house for easier accessibility, especially for persons with disabilities or others for whom accessing a toilet exposes one to a health or security challenge.
They are dry toilets built on prefabricated concrete structures with urine-diverting abilities.
The units come with two 30 kilos and 25-liter removable waste cartridges that are emptied regularly by the Fresh Life team and the waste is safely managed by community partners.
Sh1,040 a month
So far, they have leased about 5,000 toilet units across the three cities they operate in — Nairobi, Kisumu and Eldoret.
The entrepreneurs say they serve about 175,000 people through a leasing programme that allows urban residents to install the units at their plots and schools.
Entrepreneurs pay between $3 and $8.5 (Sh366-Sh1,040) every month. The owners have the responsibility of ensuring the units remain operational. Each user pays Sh5 to use the facility.
Seeing that human waste is a bio-hazard, Fresh Life has a service-level agreement with urban residents who invest in toilets. They must ensure that the units are always clean. Fresh Life provides toilet paper, soap and clean water for handwashing.
Sanergy co-founders, David Auerbach (Left), Lindsay Stradley (centre) and Ani Vallabhaneni at Sameer Business Park, the headquarters of Fresh Life, a company that manufactures portable toilets in Kenya. PHOTO | POOL
“We have brought in new industrial washing machines to wash the reusable liners that are used in the waste cartridges, therefore, avoiding human contact,” she says.
Fresh Life recently won The Rotman Innovation Award from Grand Challenges Canada. A CAD$10,000 (Sh911,703) prize to boost their innovation and expansion.
They hope to expand Fresh Life toilets into new markets.
One lesson they have learnt about social entrepreneurship?
“There is always a need, a problem to be solved, a gap to be filled,” says Ms Stradley.
