Fees from plastic
Our core fund. Plastic collected at hubs and through school clubs is sold and converted into term fees for children at risk of dropping out.
Waste to wisdom
Plastic waste becomes school fees.
We collect plastic across Kampala, sell it to local recyclers, and pay school fees straight to the schools. Two kilograms of clean plastic funds one school day.
- Verified enrolment
- Fees paid to schools
- Open monthly ledger
2 kg = 1 school dayclean, sorted plastic
200 kg = a full termpaid to the school
1,936 kg
Plastic diverted from landfill
512
School days funded
8
Students in the current cohort
4
Collection hubs in Kampala
Why we exist
Fees are the reason children drop out. Plastic is everywhere.
School fees fall due three times a year. For a family living hand to mouth, one bad month can cost a child an entire term — and often the year after it.
At the same time, Kampala throws away hundreds of tonnes of recyclable plastic every day, most of it worth money to a recycler but not worth the trip for a household with nothing to carry it in.
Gunjula closes that loop. We make collection worth the trip, turn the plastic into cash, and turn the cash into school days — with a receipt for every step.
Read how the model worksThe maths
Simple enough to explain to a seven-year-old.
- Clean plastic, sorted
- 2 kg
- A collector is paid
- UGX 1,400
- A child stays in school
- 1 day
- A full term
- 200 kg
Every kilogram is weighed at a hub, logged, and baled for a licensed recycler. Fees are paid to the school's bank account — never in cash to a family.
How it works
From a bottle in the gutter to a seat in class.
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1
Collect
Households, schools and shops bring clean plastic to a hub, or book a free pickup for 20 kg and above.
-
2
Weigh & sort
Plastic is weighed in front of you, sorted by type, and baled. Collectors are paid on the spot.
-
3
Sell & pool
Licensed local recyclers buy the bales. Every shilling goes into the fees pool, never to overheads.
-
4
Pay the school
Fees go directly to the school's bank account. The receipt number appears in the open ledger.
What we run
Three programmes, one ledger.
Everything is designed so that a bag of plastic and a bank transfer end up in the same place: a child's school account.
School collection clubs
Friday sorting sessions in six primary schools. Pupils learn to separate PET, HDPE and film — and their club's bales count towards their own classmates' fees.
Green skills lab
Weighing, baling, bookkeeping and safe handling. Young people leave with a certificate and a route into paid work with our recycler partners.
This term
Eight children are one good month from staying in class.
Fully funded students are marked green. Everything else is the exact amount still missing before the term closes.
This year's pool
Money in, money out, in public.
Two streams feed the fund: cash donations and the sale of collected plastic. Both are published every month with the school receipts attached.
Cash raised
UGX 1,614,200
from 31 donors
Plastic sale value
UGX 1,355,200
1,936 kg at UGX 700/kg
How the pool is allocated
Allocation policy, reviewed each term with the board and the partner schools. Fees always draw first.
“Before Gunjula we sent children home for fees every term. Now the school receives the fee before the term starts, and we can spend the first week teaching instead of chasing parents.â€
Working with
Kampala City Council
Nakawa Division
St. Clare Primary
Kigozi Secondary
Plastics Hub Uganda
Nansana Traders