As the world battles waste challenges, Nigerians are innovating alternative ways to recycle waste.
Just like elsewhere in the world, Nigeria is no left out of the struggle as Plastic wastes, leftover bags, and food and drink containers litter the streets and environs.
A lot of waste in Nigeria ends up in the waterways that lead into the Gulf of Guinea, an area in the Atlantic Ocean. That has led to concerns about the amount of plastic entering the sea.
Nigerian wastepreneursare providing an answer to this by transforming waste and redefining its purpose.
These innovators work with different materials – water sachets, scrap metal, bottles, plastic, tyres and more – with many of them learning on the job, how to manipulate these objects, to make “beauty out of ashes”.
Jumoke Olowookere an ibadan based resident is one of the wastepreneurswho uses discarded tyres and bottles to create outdoor play equipment for children, items such as ottoman chairs, handwashing sinks and garden ornaments to sell at her shop in Ibadan.
Olowookere founded a waste museum, the first of its kind in Africa where she uses waste material to make art and clothing. Her work calls attention to the damaging effects of waste on the environment.
At the recent opening ceremony for the museum in Ibadan city, she said, “With the Waste Museum, we are showcasing the value of waste.”
“We want people to see how waste can be turned into wealth.Our ultimate goal is to ensure that no waste goes into the landfill –– a zero-waste future is possible,” she said.
she also runs a small organisation that, among other things, converts waste into play equipment for schools.
The “Waste Museum” also provides environmental education and helps women and youth from underserved communities with upcycling skills. Upcycling reuses waste material to create a new product.
Olowookere said she had the idea for a museum when she saw the amount of waste that came from her home. She started collecting the waste while reading up on how to reduce and recycle waste. Recycling is a process to make something new from something that has been used before.
With support from the United States African Development Foundation, the Waste Museum was born.
Ade Dagunduro, graduate of Fine Art from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, is another wastepreneur who uses waste materials such as car tyres, scrap metal, rope and plastic, to form works of art at his studio in Dugbe, Ibadan.
His desire to push the boundaries of what he learned within the walls of a university spurred him to take up more training in painting and sculptures.
“School was more theoretical, less practical. When you get out of school and into the real world, you realise there is much more to learn,” he said.
“Our environment can now smile because we have people like us trying to ease off its burden by picking the waste off its shoulders. These days, you hardly find cartons, for instance, littering the streets. Humans are exhausting the forests. Now we need more paper, so we have to start recycling what we see on the street,” he added.
Art has changed his life, he adds, and, now, he can help improve life a little for others by taking waste from the streets to make art.