What if a discarded bottle could help build a business? What if the materials leaving our homes could create income, support new industries and ease the pressure on our environment?

These questions sit at the heart of the Khomas Sustainability, Green Growth and Circular Economy Roadmap for 2026–2031. Prepared for a launch convened by the Office of the Governor of Khomas Region on 5 October 2026, the roadmap sets out a practical ambition: connect the region’s people, institutions and enterprises so that more resources retain their value and more communities share in the benefits.

For the Namibia Rethink Waste GreenCycle Expo, this is a powerful connection between the ideas brought into public view and the systems needed to put them to work.

A foundation already exists

The roadmap presentation reports that Kupferberg receives approximately 80,000 tonnes of general waste annually. Behind that figure lies a challenge—and an opportunity to recover materials before their value is lost.

Windhoek’s waste buy-back centres show that communities are already participating. The presentation records approximately 9,000 drop-offs and N$1.42 million paid to residents between September 2024 and September 2026. It also reports around 310 tonnes of materials recovered over roughly two years.

Those payments make circularity tangible. A material that might otherwise be discarded can become a source of income. The next challenge is to connect collection with reliable buyers, growing enterprises and evidence that can attract investment.

Connecting people, projects and capital

The roadmap’s four pillars cover green enterprise, resource recovery, climate resilience and institutional coordination. Skills, data, investment and governance support each of them.

Its Sustainability, Green Growth and Circular Economy Desk is designed to convene partners, assess projects, connect opportunities and report progress. Its role is coordination and project readiness; it does not directly fund projects or replace statutory mandates.

The Namibia Rethink Waste GreenCycle Expo is recognised in the roadmap as an existing convening platform. That recognition points to a valuable role: helping innovators meet potential buyers, communities meet partners, and promising ideas find a route towards implementation.

Two approaches to the plastic challenge

The launch programme also included a pitch by Righardt Visser of RevoBloc and SoluNova, presenting complementary approaches to plastic waste.

RevoBloc proposes converting recycled plastic and mineral aggregate into interlocking building blocks. Its pitch seeks a public demonstration site, access to sorted plastic waste and financing introductions for a Namibian manufacturing facility. These are proposed next steps, with local implementation and approvals still to be established.

SoluNova’s presentation focuses on packaging compounds intended to improve recyclability and reduce pollution at the design stage. Together, the proposals invite a broader conversation: how can Namibia recover the waste already here while improving the products that enter the market tomorrow?

A future measured in results

By 2031, the roadmap targets include diverting more than 2,000 tonnes of waste annually, improving waste services for more than 2,000 households, placing over 200 young people in green jobs and skills programmes, and assessing more than 60 green enterprises as investment-ready.

These are ambitions to work towards. Their value will depend on delivery, transparent measurement and partnerships that endure beyond a single event.

That is where the Expo’s community can help. Businesses can identify materials they can buy or reuse. Innovators can bring proposals ready for testing. Researchers can strengthen the evidence. Communities can help shape systems that work in everyday life.

Khomas already has people collecting, enterprises experimenting and institutions taking action. The opportunity now is to connect that effort—and turn more of what we throw away into value we keep.

Join the conversation through the Namibia Rethink Waste GreenCycle Expo. Bring your idea, your expertise or your next partnership, and help give Namibia’s circular future a practical starting point.