Environment
THE Association of Waste Managers of Nigeria (AWAMN) has called on Nigerians to consider earning money from the waste they generate.
AWAMN President, Mr Olugbenga Adebola, made the call on Thursday in Lagos during the unveiling of the association’s upcoming conference, with the theme: `Redefining Integrated Waste Management In Nigeria Through Circular Economy’.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the conference, scheduled for Feb. 20 and 21, 2025, aims at ensuring that residents also benefit from the waste management sector.
According to Adebola, the association is keen on redefining the entire value chain in waste management.
“That is when we begin to give a new definition to waste management; from what it was before now as a throwaway, into people changing the psyche to begin to see waste as a resource because waste is not a waste unless you waste it.
“We are trying to educate people to begin to see the waste that they generate, that there is a livelihood in it, not only for the operators that collect the waste and then the recyclers, even tenement can make a livelihood from the waste that they generate.
“All they need to do is to separate their waste from the doorstep of the waste that they generate and then exchange it at a cost, and that is what we want to do.
“We want to move the waste management sector in Nigeria to the next level and then to professionalise the waste management industry.
“We also want to expose our members to training, newer innovations, newer technologies, and capacity development. We need to create a lot of visibility for our association,” he said.
He explained that circular economy implied not seeing waste as waste, but to make, use, reuse, recycle and reinvent waste.
“Currently, we are operating a linear economy; which means that you take your raw material; you make, to produce something; and then you use; and then you waste, which is why you have waste everywhere.
“Now we are transitioning to a circular economy. What we are doing is to foster and fast-track transitioning into a circular economy, which is take, make, use, reuse, recycle, and reinvent.
“So, the message about circular economy is that you are not going to generate any waste, and the economic implication in there is that there will be more businesses, more livelihood for people.
“People will continue to recover the waste, and then, instead of wasting it, they can make money from it.
“Newer innovations are going to come in, newer technologies that can convert, for instance, bottles, into something else,” Adebola said. (NAN)
A.I
Nov. 29, 2024
Tags: Association of Waste Managers of Nigeria Mr Olugbenga Adebola
