Rather than young graduates seeking white-collar jobs, they should go into waste-to-wealth managment where they can be self-reliant.
Gregory Ohiaeri, chief operating officer/managing director, EarthCare Nigeria Limited, believes his company is in a position to help young graduates achieve this dream.
In this chat with Damiete Braide, Ohiaeri spoke on the benefits of eating compost plus grown feeds, collaborations with companies that want to venture in waste management, how to source for waste and advice to government and youths, among others.
Excerpts:
About EarthCare Nigeria Limited
Earthcare is a waste-to-wealth company based in Ikorudu. We work in collaboration with the Lagos Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) to take waste from Lagos State and turn it into compost plus fertilisers for plants and protein feed for animals.
We also have a project called the Black Soldier Fly (BSF), where we use the flies’ larvae (maggots) to bio-convert some of our organic waste. These larvae are ferocious eaters. They break down waste quicker than any other microbial process. It also allows us to harvest the maggots because, at that stage, when the maggots are grown, it is about 40 to 43 per cent pure protein. The protein is what we need for animal feeds. It is better than the usual ones used, which are plant-based protein from soya bean and so on. With the maggots, we can bio-convert the waste to protein for animal feeds and also produce the residual frass. It is also rich in nutrients for farmers to grow their crops and at the same time rejuvenate the soil. It is a very diverse company.
When we talk about waste-to-wealth, some people don’t know that there is wealth in waste that we see regardless of the kind of waste. Even from the drinks that people drink, the bottles can be recycled to produce other sustainable products. Our job is to take these waste, turn it around to make wealth from it in terms of empowerment, employment and so on.
Benefits of eating compost plus-grown feeds
Compost plus is an organic form of fertiliser. It is natural. It has no chemical or man-made subsatnce in it. It is better to use compost to grow whole food in terms of our agricultural use. Using compost has advantages, as against using chemical fertiliser. If you watch, using compost plus, since it is natural, some of the produce from the natural harvest tends to last longer. The shelf life is higher and much better than the shelf life of other crops that are grown with chemical fertiliser.
Also, by using compost fertiliser, not only do you provide the nutrient that the crop will need, you also provide the microbes that will help rejuvenate the soil. If you use chemical fertilizer, the chemical will kill some of the microbes on the farm, that is why you see some farmers, after one or two years, they leave the land fallow and go to other farmlands to grow their crops, to give the soil some chance to rejuvenate; but if you are using compost, you will not have that problem, you will continue to use the farmland every year to grow your crops.
How your firm copes with poor infrastructure like electricity,
We are aware of the challenges with electricity and because of that most of our equipment are run with diesel engines, which makes us not to rely on electricity that much. Since it is fieldwork, equipment can run anywhere. We are not affected by electricity, except in the office. To mitigate that, we use generators to overcome the electricity challenge that everybody faces in the country. Lately, in this area, we now have steady electricity supply and when power goes off, it comes back not very long after.
Equipment purchase and maintenance
The machines that we have operational now are the machines that we purchased when the World Bank project started some years ago. We maintain them through normal servicing of the equipment. Turnover with drivers is a challenge these days. Some of the drivers, when you give them diesel, when they go out, they siphon the diesel, sell the product and come back to say that there is no diesel. Getting some honest drivers to do their work efficiently is a big challenge.
What are your company’s other activities
Earthcare originally started with processing bulk waste into organic fertilizer but, as time goes passed, the company diversified into the production of animal feed and bio-gas, and we hope to diversify into other areas that will be disclosed at the right time.
Innovations company has made under your leadership since 2016
Some of the innovations that I have brought in since my assumption into office are enhancing the current products that we do, which is compost, the bio-convulsion, using the BSF larvae to produce protein, and the bio-gas project to produce methane gas using the same products. What we need to do now is to scale it up because we have done pilot projects and they are viable innovations. All the products that we produce here also help to mitigate carbon dioxide emissions and climate change issues.
How do you source your waste?
LAWMA is our main partner. We have the right of waste through LAWMA. We are also Private Sector Partners (PSPs) but most of the waste that we use for our products is from Mile 12 market and Oyingbo Market. We also get industrial waste from Nigerian Breweries, Nestle Foods and other companies, where we get their organic waste for our products.
Since EarthCare is expanding, how can other firms key into this?
Earthcare is a private company but we welcome collaborations with other companies or partners that may be interested in working with us. Since our main job is to process organic waste, sometimes we get offers from companies, whether they are producers that want to do zero waste projects or they don’t want to get rid of organic waste. They can partner with us. We either go to their office or they bring their waste to us and we process it. Some of these big companies use different grains to produce their end products. Some of them may want to do their zero waste products and we process it and their farmers take it and use it on their farms.
We can also work with companies that have the technology to convert waste to other sustainable projects. We can also work with them so that we can both achieve the same goal. We can give them a space on our premises where they can set up their facility and manage it.
EarthCare’s contributions to employment generation and economic growth
That is one area where we have challenges. If the awareness is there, Earthcare can provide over 500 jobs to young graduates in different fields such as Zoology, Microbiology and Animal Science. We still have a lot to do in terms of creating employment. Once we are able to scale up our processes, we can employ fresh graduates from the university.
How do you fund your operations?
The funds that we have now are basically from the sale of materials that we have. We are seeking funds to upscale some of the facilities here. Sometimes, we get funding from international organisations like the United Nations and the World Bank. Recently, we were in talks with some international companies that are into carbon credit, and they are willing to fund some of our projects because all of our projects meet climate change criteria.