Lagos, Nigeria – Sahara Foundation has collaborated with the Lagos State Employment Trust Fund and Wecyclers to kick off Recycle for Pay Program, a crowd-sourced, incentive-based recycling program for individuals, households, communities, and organizations in Lagos State.
The empowerment program which kicked off in the Isolo Local Government of Lagos State with the unveiling of a modular exchange hub is targeted at fostering a sustainable approach to waste management and contributing to the development of a circular economy by helping Lagos residents to turn waste into wealth.
Ejiro Gray, Director of Governance and Sustainability, Sahara Group, while speaking at the launch of the project said, “The purpose of this project is to develop a sustainable environment, create employment, and sensitize the people of Isolo community to adopt recycling as an efficient waste management practice while advocating a movement of environmentally conscious Lagosians.
She added that Sahara Foundation was fully dedicated to impacting lives and livelihoods across its host communities in a sustainable way.
On her part, the Director of Programmes, Lagos State Employment Trust Fund, Omolara Adewumi, said, “The essence of the partnership is to launch recycling hubs in a minimum of 12 Local Government Areas in Lagos State.
“We are doing this because we understand the significant role recycling plays in the environment, and it is about time for us as a country and continent to start taking climate change a bit seriously.
“We have all noticed the high sea levels, the flooding from last year and the effects on our drainages, pollution for a continent that does not even play that much role in manufacturing plastic.”
The Chief Operating Officer, Wecyclers, Oluyemisi Lawal, said that the partnership was to empower people with their waste.
She said, “For us, we do not see waste as something to be thrown away, rather we see it as an opportunity to create business and an opportunity to also clean our environment.
“To foster a cleaner Lagos, we have brought this facility to Isolo and we hope that people in this community will begin to bring out their recyclable waste and exchange it for a cash incentive that they can get at the end of each quarter which is April, August, and December.”
She added that they did this in 23 communities across the nation and people benefited from the initiative.
