Daniel Kanu
The Statewide Waste and Environmental Education Foundation in collaboration with a coalition of Nigeria’s circular economy practitioners and environment-friendly journalists have launched ‘Journalists for the Environment group.
This is as President, SWEEP Foundation, Ambassador’ Obuesi Phillips charged Nigerian’s to rise to the challenge of the environment, stressing that waste management is everybody’s problem.
The media parley was to create more awareness and to popularise habits that support reuse, recycling, and reduction of plastic waste.
With more actors joining the ecosystem for the circular economy every year, it is becoming more vibrant.
Speaking as a guest speaker at the Media Partnership for a circular economy parley in Lagos, Mrs Nwamaka Onyemelukwe, Director, Public Affairs, Communications and Sustainability, Coca-Cola, said there is a rising recognition of the business benefits of circularity to individuals, households, and the economy.
According to her “”One way to measure the growth and vibrancy of the circular economy in Nigeria is through driving the right awareness that allows every household to separate its waste from source and recycle every bottle and thereby reducing the amount of recyclable waste that goes to dumpsite and landfills.
” Until 2020, a kilogramme (kg) of collected plastic waste sold at about N20- N40. But this has appreciated to N80- N100 per kg, a 75 percent increase.
“”These value increases are due to the emergence of increased number of recycling facilities in Nigeria that serve as off-takers for the collected used plastic waste.
” Such recycling plants include but are not limited to Alkem, Polysmart, Alef Recycling, Kaltani, Sonnex, and Recyclan, et cetera. Circular economy and sustainability start from us”.
Onyemelukwe disclosed further that Coca-Cola has a world without waste vision to help collect and recycle the equivalent of a bottle or can for every one it sells by 2030, reaching a 100 percent collection and recycling rate of all its packaging.
“” A circular Economy implies reducing waste to a minimum. When a product reaches the end of its life, its materials are kept within the economy wherever possible. These can be productively used again and again, thereby creating further value. She submitted.
It would be recalled that SWEEP Foundation is a grant recipient of The Coca-Cola Foundation implementing a project termed “Waste in the City” that has brought recycling closer to households in Surulere community in Lagos State.
SWEEP foundation through funding from The Coca-Cola Foundation has been able to deploy 120 giant recycling receptacles across the community to enable citizens’ access to a buy back scheme for their recyclable waste
Journalists admit that with social media platforms breaking news is no longer dependent on them.
However, journalists and traditional media still have an indispensable role to play because of the checks and balances involved in the editorial processing of news content to guarantee accuracy and balance.
At the media parley, interim Executives of Journalists for the Environment group was selected. They include Sani Gbenga, Managing Editor, Lagos Waste Reporters; Chibuike Chukwu, Senior Correspondent, Daily Independent; Paul Omoregbe, Online News Editor and Environment Journalist, Tribune; Funke Adesoji, Environmental Correspondent and Presenter, Silverbird Television, and Adeola Ogunalade, Weekend Desk, The Nation.
While inaugurating the Executive Committee, Amb. Obuesi Phillips, legal practitioner and President SWEEP FOUNDATION explained that “We are excited to inaugurate the Journalists for the Environment group. We recognize the power of story telling and understand journalists are critical stakeholders in this circular economy,.
“” Nigeria has long engaged in circular activities, frequently in the informal sector, and motivated more by need than by environmental concerns.
“” The formal sector is joining in, and it is showing encouraging signs of capacity growth.””