For 25 years, Homeklin (U) Ltd. has operated within the waste management sector of Uganda. Now, the local firm is attempting to pivot from simply collecting refuse to converting it into a commercial energy source.
On Wednesday, Feb. 25, the company will officially launch a new facility in the Makindye division of Kampala. The project, developed in a technical partnership with the American firm Cenergy Solutions, aims to transform organic waste into compressed biogas cylinders and liquid biofertilizer.
The initiative arrives as Kampala struggles with a persistent infrastructure failure. According to data from the Kampala Capital City Authority, the city generates approximately 730,000 tonnes of waste annually, but nearly half of that volume is never formally collected. Instead, hundreds of thousands of tonnes of organic material — which accounts for about 70 percent of the city’s total waste — often rot in unauthorized dumpsites or are burned in the open air.
Waste is only waste if wasted, said Isaac Katureebe, the founder and chief executive of Homeklin.
Mr. Katureebe said the project is designed to intercept the organic waste stream and provide a scalable alternative to charcoal. Charcoal remains the primary cooking fuel in the region, a practice that has historically driven significant deforestation across Uganda.
Located at Kevina Nsambya, the facility serves as a practical experiment in the circular economy. By capturing methane from decaying matter and packaging it into portable cylinders, the project seeks to support clean cooking initiatives and reduce respiratory health risks associated with wood-fire smoke.
The launch, which focuses on waste transformation and climate resilience, is expected to draw senior leadership from the city authority and international experts, including Gary Warren Fanger, the chief executive of Cenergy Solutions. The collaboration highlights a growing reliance on public-private partnerships to address urban sanitation gaps that have long outpaced municipal budgets.
In addition to energy, the plant will produce liquid biofertilizer, linking urban waste management to agricultural productivity. As Uganda pursues its National Development Plan goals, the success of the Nsambya facility may serve as a benchmark for whether private capital can effectively monetize the byproduct of rapid urbanization.
For residents of a city often choked by uncollected refuse, the project offers a pragmatic path forward. By treating discarded organic matter as a raw material rather than a nuisance, Homeklin is attempting to prove that a solution to the environmental decay in Kampala may be found in its trash heaps.
