The Recycling Scheme for Women and Youth Empowerment (RESWAYE), an environmental sustainability and women empowerment initiative, sponsored by The Coca-Cola Foundation, has come to an end.
The project, executed by implementing partners, the Mental and Environmental Development Initiative for Children (MEDIC), to drive environmental protection, marine conservation, and women empowerment, concluded with a closing ceremony at Ibeju Lekki on Friday, May 21, 2021.
Present at the event were key government dignitaries, community leaders, and Coca-Cola representatives including Nwamaka Onyemelukwe, Director, Public Affairs, Communications & Sustainability, Coca-Cola Nigeria Limited, Ifeyinwa Ejindu, Communications Manager, Coca-Cola Nigeria Limited, Doyinsola Ogunye, Founder, MEDIC; Barr. Mrs Rhoda Ogunye, Trustee, MEDIC; Chief (Honourable) Olalekan Bakare, Secretary to the Apapa Local Government Council and Chairman of the body of secretaries to Local Govts and LCDAs in Lagos (Scribes57); Chief Tajudeen Adams, Baale Of Igbolomi and Chairman of Baales, Ibeju-Lekki LCDA; Honourable Tosin Osunnuga, Secretary to the Local Government, Lekki LCDA; Honourable Semiu Waliu, Secretary to the Local Government Council, Ibeju Lekki; and Ogunlana Olaseni, Head, Recycling, Lekki Free Trade Zone, East District 2, Lagos State Waste Management Authority (LAWMA).
Launched in 2020, the RESWAYE project was developed following concerns around Nigeria’s increasingly polluted shorelines and coastal lines as Nigeria is reported to generate 32 million tonnes of plastic waste every year with the majority ending up in landfills, beaches, and other water bodies.
After 18 months of enlisting women and young people in the plastic buy-back scheme across 16 coastal communities in Ibeju Lekki, the project recorded impressive numbers at its conclusion with over 150,000kg of plastic waste reportedly removed from the coastal and shorelines; over 2000 women and youth empowered economically, and 2,124 households impacted – resulting in over 13,000 direct and indirect beneficiaries.
Speaking at the event, Nwamaka Onyemelukwe, Director, Public Affairs, Communications & Sustainability, Coca-Cola Nigeria Limited, lauded the initiative and emphasised the need for corporations to scale up efforts to alleviate the country’s burgeoning plastic waste problem.
The Secretary to the Local Government Lekki LGA, Chief (Honourable) Olalekan Bakare, also lauded the initiative, commending Coca-Cola for “devising a creative solution to our community’s waste problem” and urged more corporate bodies to do more.