Commission To Establish Waste Recycle Plant In Gombe State

Rebecca Mu’azu, Gombe

The North East Development Commission, NEDC, says it plans to install waste recycling plants across Gombe state, to create wealth for scavengers and generate employment.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the training of 50 trainers and 100 scavengers in Gombe, the NEDC Head of Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Adamu Lawan, said the concept of the Waste-to-Wealth project was conceived when the NEDC sought for ways to convert wastes into wealth, after it realized that a lot of wastes was being generated in the North-East.

Mr. Lawan said the recycling plant was already in the store of the commission and that the NEDC intended to replicate the installation in the three Senatorial Districts and subsequently in the local government areas.

“The NEDC is already working on the Phase II, perhaps by the next phase it will be in each of the Senatorial districts and subsequently the LGAs. The NEDC intends to reach the LGAs and have a recycling plant, where the waste materials would be taken and recycled to more useful things,” said Mr. Lawan.

He said this had become important because of how booming the waste-to-wealth venture had become a huge business.

According to him, after the training, each of the trainees will be given Personal Protective Equipment, such as boots, helmet, reflective jacket, and gloves, to protect them from the harmful substances from the dump sites.

He said the training had two levels, one for scavengers and the other for the trainers, who are either graduates or NCE holders, explaining that the scavengers are the ordinary youths with no particular work, but engage them to earn a living.

“When the scavengers bring in the materials, they will be weighed and paid based on what they bring. Some can be recycled, while some can be used as raw materials. They will be taught on which material will be useful. They will be separated first, washed and the trainer will know whether they are useful as raw material or used to produce another product,” Mr. Lawan said

He said there would be a time when the NEDC would decide on which company to link up the scavengers and trainer with.

In the meantime, the Focal Person for Gombe NEDC Office, Mr. Shehu Yerima Ibrahim, said the state government planned to integrate the beneficiaries of the Waste-to-Wealth into the activities of the Gombe State Environmental Protection Agency, GOSEPA.

Mr. Ibrahim said there was an available market for the scrap they pick from the environment.
“Some household products produced from Kano used wastes that are being recycled, because things like buckets and slippers do not have 100% raw materials they use in producing them. They are made up of 40% recycled materials and 60% virgin materials. The trainees will be deployed to the LGAs, where they could harness some of the materials from there,” said Mr. Ibrahim.

One of the Resource Persons, Professor Bibi Umar Mohammed, from the Department of Environment Resource Management, Federal University, Kashere, said the beneficiaries, would within the one week training, be taught safety measures, how to tackle stereotypes, because of how people often see scavengers as criminals and how they could manage their resources.

“They will be informed and taught how to about improving on their appearances so as to improve their relationship with other people,” said Prof. Mohammed.

He said the world was being confronted with the problem of waste management, because authorities responsible for handling them were handicapped, and without the technical capabilities, resources and finance to manage them.

Prof. Mohammed said the importance of the scavengers therefore was to improve on the deficiencies of the existing authorities, by clearing the waste in the environment and turning them into wealth.

“A work was carried out in 2020 in Lagos and it was realised that some of the scavengers earned more than some of the people in the formal sector. They earn above the formal wage of 30 thousand naira. Some of them earn more than 50 thousand naira
Somebody’s waste is Somebody’s resource, which is defined by man and not nature. Somebody’s garbage or waste is Somebody’s resources. Plastic bottles that we throw away is Somebody’s resources. Metal scrap that we think are wastes, are being recycled. For the local economy brings money and at the same time saves the environment,” said Prof. Mohammed.

He said a scavenger did not require a huge sum of money to start-off, required only the protective gears and a little bit of training.

For beneficiary Vesta Tuka, she expected to use the knowledge to be acquired from the training to train others, as well as learn more on waste management, saying she does not consider the act of scavenging a degrading business, because she intends to start-off a business where she would employ others.

Also, Nasir Aminu Kudi considers the training and his exposure to the scavenging business a rare privilege, because with the strike by university lecturers, he had now become redundant at home and so intended to use the knowledge acquired to make money from the venture, which has some of his friends engaged in it.