Waste to wealth: How recycling industry is enriching unskilled workers despite poor govt support

By Nneka Nwogwugwu

Nigeria’s plastic consumption in 2015, reached around one million tons. This figure is expected to increase to 1.5 million tons of plastic by 2020, a record by Statista showed.

With the increase in recycling companies, the industry has given opportunities to both skilled and unskilled workers despite poor support from the government.

Inside a recycling plant in Port Harcourt, there were heaps of plastic wastes in their different categories. Workers were already sorting the plastics. They were many workers there, both old and young, male and female, each concentrating on their own share of work.

Mr. Ireke Eme, General Manager of FifthSeed Recycling Company in an interview with NatureNews on Monday, 31st January, 2022, explained how the recycling industry is creating opportunities for unskilled workers.

What is the recycling mandate of Fifthseed Recycling Ltd.?

Fifth seed was established in 2019. Basically, our mandate is to see how far and how much we can help keep the environment clean and take out plastic wastes from sewages, waterways and the streets so that we can have a cleaner environment and also create employment opportunities for people who are not readily employable or unskilled.

Describe the operations of the recycling plant

We start recycling process by getting recyclable materials from scavengers or from their bosses. We buy it off them. Sometimes we have to pay higher to get these materials from them. Last year, we were buying as high as120 naira per kilo but at this moment the price has dropped to 60 naira or 70 naira per kilo. After buying them, we begin to sort them and then send them to the workshop where we crush and bag them. We either export them or sell to manufacturing plants that use them as their own direct material for production.

While explaining the sorting process, a worker was seen taking out the covers from the bottles as well as the labels. The covers, labels and bottles were kept in different bags.

Why are the covers, labels and bottles separated?

The covers are also somebody’s raw materials as well, so we crush them and sell to those who are using them as raw materials. They are called injection materials but for the labels, right now we don’t have need for the label but very soon we will start recycling the s because it is PVC. Right now we are not recycling PVC yet. But before the year ends, we will be recycling them as well.

What Categories of recycling is the company involved in?

We recycle pet bottles, other plastic wastes like chairs, buckets, gallons etc.

How do you carry out into distribution?

This is a very large industry. There are middlemen who buy off from the company and resell. We can also sell directly to the users so it depends on the contact. You can also sell to the middlemen whose job or task is to buy it off you and sell to the manufactures directly or you can as well sell to the manufacturers directly.

The materials are also exportable too.

How is the industry creating opportunities?

The scope of recycling is massive and it has not really being tapped maximally and the opportunity in here is mind blowing and as long as we still have human beings feeding there is always businesses for recyclers. The industry is big enough to accommodate as much people that are willing to come into this industry but mind you it is capital intensive, the capital requirement is massive as well. You must understand the nitty gritty of the business before venturing into the business.

What are the challenges of the industry?

One challenge of the industry is government support. Just like in every other industry in Nigeria not only in the recycling industry, you get little or no support from the government. For instance, our biggest competitor so far is the Chinese. From my findings, the Chinese get support from their government but in Nigeria we don’t have such luxury.