Car Mechanics Preserve Environment in Exchange for Loans NAIROBI -- Gifo Garage, a small car mechanic shop in a slum neighborhood in this African metropolis, is growing. Once a bare shack-like structure where customers only came for mechanical repairs, the garage is now adding a shed to house paint jobs and a proper office. At the same time, the grounds of the garage – once stained with polluting, used engine oil – are cleaner.  | | EPS staff pick up used oil from mechanics once they have filled up a 240-liter container. |
The changes came when the garage joined a DM-funded project run by Kenyan NGO Enterprise Professional Services (EPS), which developed a credit program to give mechanics an incentive for disposing of used oil in an environmentally-friendly fashion. A highly polluting substance, used oil is typically used as a dust settler, or is dumped into the water drainage system. Kenya uses some 13 million liters of lubricating oil per year. The problem is particularly acute in Nairobi, where used oil typicilly is dumped into the water of the Muruku-Ngong River, which is used by residents of neighboring slums as drinking and cooking water. The oil is also harmful to the river ecosystem. For garages like Gifo, EPS presents a double incentive: safe disposal of used oil for environmental safety and previously un attainable access to credit for business expansion. “The idea was something I bumped into it because I had a very old car, and every time I went to the mechanic … I would see them taking out all this oil, putting it into a container and leaving it carelessly where they work,” said Collins Apouyo, EPS project team leader. “I asked where they take it, and they said they throw it out at the end of the day.” “So I started thinking, ‘how can this oil be used? I asked around and found that used  | | A mechanic in the slums of Nairobi signs over paperwork to EPS specifying how much used oil his shop has collected. |
oil can be used for several purposes,” he added. Participating mechanics collect used oil and call in for a pick when they fill up a 240-liter container. EPS then sells the used oil to cement, wood preservative and other manufacturers that use the waste oil in their processes. The money EPS earns it builds up in a fund from which it can lend to program participants. The size of the loans depends on how much used engine oil they collect. To date, EPS has lent roughly $15,000 to a dozen mechanics groups or garages, in loans ranging in size from about $120 to $500. Giro, for instance, expects to repay its loan in eight months and is already planning to take another, for the purchase of new diagnostic equipment. When asked how the garage disposed of oil prior to EPS, one of Gifo’s co-owners put it bluntly: “We used to dump oil anywhere…killing ourselves slowly.” Another garage, Carelink, used its loan to buy a large compression unit that can better and more efficiently paint cars compar ed to their old unit. Carelink also rents out the unit to other garages, generating another 20 percent in revenues. "When we talk to them they say ‘previously we thought [used oil] was waste we were throwing away, but now it’s money coming back to us’,” Apouyo said, referring to the mechanics. Preliminary market surveys show the potential for selling up to 60,000 liters of recycled oil every month. And while no study has been done to quantify the reduction of lubricant pollution in the Mukuru-Ngong River, Apouyo said: “One thing is for sure, that since we started this work we have managed to capture from the mechanics almost 210,000 liters of used oil.” Aside from collecting used oil in bulk, EPS runs environmental awareness trainings educating the motor vehicle industry about safely discarding of polluting substances. The oil collection project has been recognized by numerous environmental groups. In December 2006, Apouyo was also named one of Ashoka’s “Changemakers of the Month." For more information on the project, visit http://www.epsprogram.org
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