Lagos State governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu has urged residents of the state to create wealth for themselves by recycling their waste. Sanwo-Olu gave the advice during the launch of the Lagos Blue Box Initiative held in Lagos on Thursday.
According to him, recycling is a major fortune earner for government and youths.
Sanwo-Olu said: “In Lagos, 50 per cent of waste generated contained reusable resources, which can be channel into the economy of the state.
“The recycling of waste encourages the use of another person’s scrap as a fixed stock for another person’s process. “It minimises waste in our society and generates income for the citizens.
“The Lagos State Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) is saddled with this responsibility of driving a circular economy through active community engagement.
” This will encourage the effective use of recyclable materials to create value chain and create new markets for government and the people.
“Currently, the bulk of the recyclables are being harvested from the dump sites by scavengers in the informal sector.
“The resources harvested often time could not pass the quality test that are needed, making it difficult for the recyclers to get value for the materials,”Sanwo-Olu said.
He said that there was the need to address this challenge as well as tap into the new business opportunity available in the sub sector, which had necessitated the launching of the Blue Box programme.
Also speaking, the wife of the governor, Dr Ibijoke Sanwo-Olu, said that the Lagos Blue Box programme would make the environment cleaner, healthier and livable for all residents.
She said that the programme also would create more jobs for women through job creation, adding that zero waste was a collective responsibility of all.
In his remarks, the Commissioner for the Environment, Mr Tunji Bello, said that the dearth of sufficient land space had also affected adversely the state waste management strategy.
” We are unable to get adequate landfill activities to accommodate the huge waste being generated on a daily basis. It’s estimated to have grown from 10,000 metric tones to 14,000 metric tones within a period of five years.
“This has necessitated our urge to rethink our strategy in waste management and one of which is waste sorting.
Our ultimate aim is to attain waste conversation and waste buyback. “And in the process, turning our waste into resources,” Bello said.
