Your waste, their opportunity

They are not big executives, and their jobs do not come with big and glamorous titles. They work in very small groups, yet, somehow, their effort has a big impact on the environment. They are the men and women, numbering in the hundreds, who gather, sort and recycle waste generated across Nigeria’s major cities daily.

Hassan Yinusa is one of them, who spoke in pidgin English, but interpreted thus: “I have worked at the dumpsite at Lasu Road, Igando, Lagos, for 8 years,” he says, noting “I make between N1,500 ($7) and N2,000 ($9) daily. What I collect is taken by other workers for recycling in large plants, mostly in the outskirts of the city.”

Comrade Sunday Olukoya, who is the special adviser, Waste to Wealth Association of Nigeria, Igando landfill site, reveals that, “There are more than three thousand registered members working at the dumpsite, Solous 3, Igando.  The amount of recyclable items collected daily depends on individual capacity.”

Many youths between the ages of 20 and 45 years in the recycling business have been driven to it because of rising unemployment. It has been estimated that recycling 10,000 tons of solid waste creates over 36,000 jobs from collecting, processing to recycling.

“What has happened is that instead of loitering and wasting their time, these young men and women who work at dumpsites have engaged themselves in sorting and recycling hard waste, which is collected from the cities,” says Raphael Okpara, a Lagos resident who is also an environmentalist. 

“It is a big opportunity, which many overlooked in the past. Most of the workers are in their early twenties. Interestingly, they have churned out lucrative businesses for themselves.

“Their work makes our cities cleaner, safer and habitable,” says Morenike Akande, an urban and rural development specialist in Lagos, saying “it also saves the planet several mineral resources and energy.”

Morenike’s position is corroborated by several environmentalists.

For instance, “recycling one million tons of discarded steel recovered from a dumpsites can save time and energy that would have been spent on mining 1.3 million tons of iron ore, and the 718,000 tons of coal and 62,000 tons of limestone that would have gone into generating the energy to process it into steel,” says Kayode Bello, director, e-waste unit, Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency (LASEPA).

But beyond discarded steel, pieces of used and unused nylon, pet bottles, waste paper, beverage containers and various e-wastes are also collected at dumpsites across the country for recycling by those involved in the business.

“Presently, there are no national inventory data for over 10 states in Nigeria to estimate the industry worth of Nigeria Waste Potential, but data gathered so far on a joint project funded by (UNDP, GEF and FMoE) on Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) and Municipal Agricultural Waste (MAW) Inventory data for quantification of Dioxins Emission from Open Source burning of MSW and MAW is estimated at 28.3 million tons per annum. This value was an estimated projection from five states data on MSW inventory data,” says Efegbidiki Okobia, an environmental consultant.

The huge business potential in the waste management industry has also attracted some entrepreneurs who are turning waste into wealth. Two of these entrepreneurs are Wecyclers and RecyclesPoints Limited, who have both made tremendous impact in the business of recyclables collections in Lagos.

Bilikiss Adebiyi-Abiola, chief executive officer, Wecyclers, notes that “both the poor and rich equally struggle to dispose their waste.” She says that the waste management opportunity in Nigeria (plastic and aluminum recycling) is valued at about N600 billion ($3 billion) annually by her  own assessment. “This is a lot of money we have left lying around,” she says. 

RecyclePoints is a waste recycling and social benefit venture that motivates citizens to recycle by creating value from their everyday waste. 

According to Chioma Ukonu, co-founder and the chief operating officer, “Recyclers that subscribe to RecyclePoints earn points per volume or quantity of recyclable items they collect and deposit with our scheme.  We operate a door-to-door recyclables collection operation. The recyclables are collated at our various Collection and Sorting Hubs (CoSoHUBs) where they are processed and thereafter sold to recycling plants that use them as raw materials to produce new items.”

According to information from the Lagos State Waste Management Authority (LAWMA), “Out of approximately 12,000 metric tons of waste is generated daily in Lagos, with about 1,200 metric tons now being converted to other useful resources under a formal arrangement with the private sector participants.” 

Lagos State has been able to bring the private sector into its waste management model.

“At present, more than 30 trucks operated by the Private Sector Participants (PSP) pick up waste daily across Lagos State.  Some of the trucks carry between 10 and 30 tons of waste. 

“From these, about five tons of recyclables ‘pure’ water nylons, plastics, paper, and beverage containers are collected,” says Afolasade Faniyi, an executive with Solous MRF .1. Limited, a company involved in the waste management business.

“After sorting, the recovered items are sold or supplied to customers who have made prepayment. We have companies and individuals or middlemen who buy and further supply their clients.  More than five tons of ‘pure’ water sachets nylon for instance, are sold daily. Pure water sachet is sold for N55.00  ($0.2) per kilogram, while cans are sold for N150.00 ($0.6) per kilogram,” said Afolasade.

Apart from this, LAWMA is also trying to turn waste into energy by harnessing methane gas emitted from rotting waste at Olushosun, the largest landfill in Lagos.  The state is setting up a facility in a 42.7 hectares space at Olushosun for this project.  This project is expected to produce 25MW of electricity daily when completed.

Recently, Ola Oresanya, former LAWMA director, disclosed that “Lagos has partnered with a technology company, Ericsson, to recycle electronic waste.” He spoke at a conference organised by the Kuramo Conferences and the Resource Innovation and Solutions Network Nigeria (RISSN), in commemoration of Earth Day, 2015.”

Some of the useful output of recycling includes the recycling of plastics to produce chairs and other wares. Metallic beverage containers are either destroyed and re-crafted for reuse or made into local lamps or other products for domestic use, while food remnant and greenery goes into the production of organic fertilizer.

But Lagos is not the only city in which dumpsites and recycling are becoming big business. In Kano, which is the most populated city in Nigeria, about 156,676 metric tons of waste is generated monthly.  A research report by Mustapha Muktar, a professor in the Department of Economics at Bayero University, Kano, states that “very large dumps tend to attract local scavengers called ‘Baban Bola’ who find employment sorting through solid waste. “

Mustapha also notes that “youth scavengers in Kano State are not organised in any formal way.  The scavengers are of two types: primary and secondary scavengers.  Secondary scavengers give primary scavengers a token to collect recyclables from neighborhoods. A kilogram of rubber shoes or plastic costs N22 – N30 ($0.09) – ($0.1) on average.” 

Also in Port Harcourt, which is deemed a moderately large city by Nigerian standards, with a population of 1,053,900, generates about 117,825 metric tons monthly.

Cost of scavenging

Scavenging, however, comes at a cost to the health of the scavengers.   They are often faced with infections diseases such as skin diseases, coughing, eye and respiratory problems due to exposure to infected items; sometimes, they are exposed to accidental injuries at landfill sites. 

“Whenever I fall sick, I buy drugs from any nearby chemist (drug store).   I do this since I cannot afford to pay hospital bill.  I usually spend between N500 ($2) and N1,000 ($5) for drugs when I fall sick, but I hardly get sick anyway,” says Michael, one of the scavengers. 

Comrade Stanley Anaro, secretary, Waste to Wealth Association of Nigeria, Igando, says the government needs to intervene to provide standby health care facilities for scavengers because they provide essential services to the nation.

“There has not been a very strong nationalist approach to waste management,” argues Chioma Ukonu, chief operating officer, RecyclePoints Limited.

“If we say we are 170 million people generating 0.5kg of waste per day, that puts it to 85,000 tons of waste generated daily, yet there is no clear cut waste management strategy in place in many states,” she says.

She says that the government should note that “the burning of unsorted waste generates harmful toxins to the atmosphere, which is not good for humans and other living organisms and the environment.  Besides, careless and indiscriminate littering and dumping of waste leads to flooding during raining season, as the wastes end up blocking drainage channels.”

She therefore calls for the enforcement of an Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) policy where producers are responsible for the entire lifecycle of products that they generate to ensure a safe environment. EPR policies, she says, ensure responsible packaging and support buyback systems for waste generated from products.

Peter Ehigiator