By Henry Uche
DoGood.Africa, a registered non-profit social enterprise, in partnership with HB Imagino has been awarded a grant of $94,000 from the Coca-Cola Foundation (TCCF) to improve the livelihood of over 300 waste pickers and sorters in impoverished communities in Lagos through economic empowerment under a recycling project tagged “Waste to Wealth.
The “Waste to Wealth’’ project is designed to contribute to several of the Sustainable Development Goals in a bid to ameliorate the hardship caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, promote a greener environment and ultimately develop Nigeria as a whole.
Speaking with journalists in Lagos, co-founder, of DoGoodAfrica, Toni Fola-Alade, said that the organisation is excited to receive the grant to fund the pilot project which would run for the period of one year. He expressed optimism that the project would be sustainable and rewarding for partners and as well encourage a healthier environment and sustainability.
The project, according to Fola-Alade, would collect plastic waste from source locations such as restaurants, hotels and other strategic locations where these waste products are in high consumption and through a tech process, pick them up for recycling. He added that the pilot project which would focus on Lekki area of Lagos would use technology powered by a partner organisation, HB Imagino, to track plastic waste for pick up.
“We believe that this project is an opportunity to turn our collective problem of plastic waste management into prosperity. We bought into this vision with our generous partner, Coca-Cola. By being able to integrate the value chain, we can tackle this problem. We are seeing this resource of plastic waste for what it really is,”he said.