City Exchange with Vienna leads to a Municipal Solid Waste Management Initiative in Schools in Addis Abab
October 2022 - The Addis Ababa Cleansing Management Agency (AACMA) employs different techniques and projects to increase resource efficiency in the city and promote the 5Rs - Rethink, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Refuse the use of single-use items - to derive maximum value from waste. The 5Rs approach is advocated by UN-Habitat’s Waste Wise Cities, a global program working with cities to address the solid waste crises. Under the Waste Wise Cities Challenge, and in collaboration with the city of Vienna, Austria, Urban Pathways supported AACMA in the implementation of an awareness campaign and a waste initiative for selected primary schools’ environmental protection clubs.
The aim of the initiative was to sensitize primary schools’ students on sustainable solid waste and resource efficiency and foster behavioral change towards sustainable consumption through piloting waste segregation at source in schools. 
The project kick of meeting took place on the 5th of May 2022, and was attended by high officials from the city government, UN-Habitat, selected schools and other partners. Mr. Sadik Shikur, Deputy General Manager of the Addis Ababa Cleansing Management Agency, in his opening speech, appreciated that “through the Urban Pathway project, schools can become aware of the waste management issues that the city faces as well as of opportunities the solid waste sector offers for a better urban environment”. 
Key activities of the initiative included a training on the 5Rs of Waste Management to 300 environmental protection clubs’ members which was conducted in the selected schools.
In addition, an educational visit to a plastic recycling facility was organized for 135 selected students and school teachers, who learnt about the plastic recycling processing steps: sorting, categorizing, washing, shredding, identification and separation of plastics, extruding and compounding done by machines at the recycling facility where plastic wastes are transformed into a usable and valuable product.
The initiative also organized a Plogging event at Entoto Park, in which more than 150 students and teachers from selected 30 primary schools and AACMA experts collected 81 kgs of waste. The collected plastic bottles were crushed by Small and Medium Enterprises’ operating in the park and sold to local plastic recyclers while the residual waste was transported to a landfill through AACMA.
Furthermore, a pilot initiative on waste segregation at source was implemented in which equipment (dust bins, wheelbarrows, gloves etc.) was distributed in selected schools. The distribution event was attended by Addis Ababa Mayor Ms. Adanech Abebe on 6th September 2022, who strongly supported the initiative. The participating schools are now segregating waste into organic and non-organic fractions, and are having a regular cleanup day every Friday. Three pilot schools implement composting using the organic waste generated in their own premises. 
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The project was a success in creating awareness among students and teachers on sustainable solid waste and resource efficiency and helped to foster behavioral change to sustainable consumption.  AACMA and the schools worked as team and showed the power that such collaboration can have on the improvement of the city. 
The initiative was inspired by a city exchange between Vienna, Austria, and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in which city officials from Vienna shared their experience of using education and awareness tools for a more climate friendly waste management system.