Coca-Cola Foundation, FABE Join Forces for Tidy Nigeria

FABE International Foundation has taken project #TidyNigeria a Community/Household Recycling Drive one-step further. It is collaborating with The Coca Cola Foundation (CCF) to make this initiative a reality.

“With funding from the Coca-Cola Foundation, FABE International Foundation will be establishing five  #TidyNigeriaRecyclingHubs across Lagos State, Nigeria. This validates our Foundation’s goal to Create a Zero Waste Nigeria one community at a time,” the CCF said in a statement.

It was gathered that the Foundations were cooperating on this because plastic pollution has emerged as a major issue in Lagos, which experts trace to its being a coastal city. In fact, some of the impacts people face due to improper sorting and disposal of waste are flooding, diseases, loss of lives and properties. An estimated 8.3 billion tons of plastics have been produced since the 1950s but more than half either end up in our dumpsite or oceans making them super difficult to recover or recycle.

According to a statement, FABE has developed an innovative recovery strategy known as the #TidyNigeriaRecyclingDrive that would educate, sensitise, promote more recovery, and encourage households and communities to subscribe to the intentional and proper sorting of waste from source in exchange for value.

On the initiative, President of The Coca-Cola Foundation, Saadia Madsbjerg, noted the Foundation supports grassroots initiatives that build resilience of communities to properly manage their waste streams.

According to her, this grant will support local communities in Lagos to better manage waste as we collectively journey towards a zero waste society, globally, one community at a time.

Similarly, Director of Public Affairs, Communications and Sustainability, Nwamaka Onyemelukwe, said, The Coca-Cola Foundation supports programmes around the world that are centred on water, waste disposals and community well-being.

Hence, this project, which involves the whole community of VGC, is to create awareness for people at home to start separating their wastes and thereby recycling them.

The #TidyNigeria Recycling Drive, the statement noted,  would  be used as one of the solutions that will contribute to solving the climate crisis in Lagos, Nigeria by leveraging Experiential Advocacy and Technology to address the menace of plastic waste pollution, poverty and unemployment in Ocean Frontline Communities, Households, Companies and Businesses with women and youths as drivers of the #TidyNigeriaHubs which will innovatively collect, process and convert post-consumer packaging into industrial and consumer goods through our #EcoShop.

The statement explained that some #TidyNigeriaHubs would be located inside estates, and communities and will operate as a community-led, community-inclusive hub strategically selected to meet our ambitious target recovery of 600 tonnes of post-consumer packaging. This, it said, would encourage waste segregation and sorting from point of source and offer consumers the convenience and accessibility to recycle their household waste in a Tidy Nigeria Recycling Hub. Everyone can now drop-off their PET bottles, cans, and cartons from different households, and communities, and be rewarded immediately through the #EcoShop. This inclusion will allow Tidy Nigeria Recycling Hub users redeem cash or value to support their social needs.

The #TidyNigeriaHubs has been designed to: Empower Community Women; Employ Young People; Drive Community Engagement; and Provide Skill Acquisition, Experiential Advocacy and Education.

The Tidy Nigeria solution to Plastic Pollution in Lagos State was conceived to greatly contribute to the reduction of carbon emissions, towards ensuring a Zero Carbon Lagos, Waste Free Lagos, Circular Economy, Environmental Sustainability, and a World Without Waste.

The Goal of the #TidyNigeriaRecyclingDriveis expected to sensitise communities in Lagos on the effects of plastic pollution, drive recovery of post-consumer packaging and generate sources of income for the women and youths in the community.