In a bid to take waste, especially plastic waste, off the streets of Lagos, Rite Foods Limited has partnered with RecyclePoint to unveil ‘Waste is Naira’ for plastic waste disposal in exchange for money.
Speaking during the unveiling ceremony in Lagos on Tuesday, the Head of Corporate Affairs and Sustainability at Rite Foods Limited, Mr Eze Ekuma, said the company has a commitment to environmental sustainability. He added that the partnership intends to create an environment that sustains life, where one can be proud.
“We commit to environmental sustainability. We want to have an environment that we are all proud of, an environment that can sustain life, an environment that will be good for all of us. And this is the reason why, over the years, we have always partnered with those who know how to do it to ensure that we keep our environment sanitised and clean,” Ekuma said.
He stressed that the firm has also partnered with Pop Beach Club to ensure that the beaches are not littered, especially with plastic bottles.
“Over the years, our partner on the ‘Right of the Beach’ has been doing wonderful work, partnering with us to clean the coastal communities here in Lagos. It is not a small task. Those of us who go to the beaches see the amount of plastic waste on the seashore. But in some of those communities, we go there and we hardly see any plastic. That is going to the range of what the partnership has been doing,” he said.
Ekuma added that Rite Foods Limited has been working with Popbeachclub to secure the coastal areas, adding that the company is now looking at how plastics in the hinterlands can be removed.
“That is why we are partnering with RecyclePoint, to ensure that we adopt a community-based approach to plastic waste collection,” he added.
According to Ekuma, the initiative will be community-based, which will move from one community to another.
“To ensure that all those plastics are disposed of responsibly, we will collect them. But it is not just going to be collecting the plastic back. We are also going to incentivise people to bring back the plastics.
Many times, in this programme, many people will be able to pay their students’ school fees by returning the plastic to us. We will be able to get some household items. There is going to be a point-based system where the more you collect, the more you earn. That is why we call it ‘Waste in Naira’. So, that waste is going to be monetised in a way that people can bring back their waste. And we take the waste, recycle, and reuse,” Ekuma stated.
Earlier, the Programme Manager at RecyclePoints, Mr Daniel Oderinde, stated that the plan is to recover 750 tonnes of plastic in the first year of the project.
“RecyclePoint is a social enterprise engaging communities not just in collecting waste but also in making social impact. This project will also create more jobs, and parents will be able to pay their children’s school fees, among others. So, it cuts across different sectors aside from just collecting waste. Within the next three months, we plan to achieve about 187 tonnes of waste. In the next six months, we should be able to move that further to about 375 tonnes and then 750 tonnes in a year. It is very achievable. We employ the stakeholders to come together,” he said.
Also speaking, Popbeachclub Founder, Akin Disu, said the issue goes beyond waste, stressing that it is about the value it holds, how it is perceived, harnessed, and ultimately distributed.
“Over the past few years, my work with Right on the Beach in the coastal community of Lagos has come up with something very simple but very powerful. We often call it waste, but it is not waste at all. It is a misplaced value. Plastic on the beach is not an environmental problem. It is a signal. It is a signal that our systems in the city are not working; they are not complete,” he said.
