by Ukemeabasi Esiet, Business Development Assistant
On March 16, Eclipse Live Africa agreed to partner with Wecyclers to conduct a more environmentally friendly version of Gidi Culture Festival, reduce the eyesore of accumulated trash and enhance the experience of festival attendees.
In order to ensure that we met the aims of this agreement, the Wecyclers team worked with Coker Creative, the event production company that was responsible for designing the experience of attendees. Both teams drafted a collaboration plan that included training the cleaning team that was to be recruited by Coker Creative, designating a portion of the rented waste bins for recyclable materials, and removal of accumulated recyclable waste from Eko Atlantic to Wecyclers’ recycling hubs.
On the morning of April 15, Wecyclers staff conducted a training exercise for the GidiFest iClean team to introduce them to our recycling model enable them to identify and sort recyclable materials for collection. The cleaning staff was enthusiastic about their involvement and identified the best ways to sort the materials while collecting from the various gathering areas and vendor stands.
After training the iClean team, Wecyclers staff members monitored the cleaners’ progress and mingled with the festivalgoers. We managed to share our recycling program with a number of them and directed them to our website for more information on our household recycling program.
By the end of the event, a total of 135 kg of recyclable materials were gathered at the collection point established by
Wecyclers. These materials were then transported for sorting and processing at our hubs in Lagos Mainland. However, a substantial amount of recyclable material was left behind on the festival grounds and ended up mixed with the non-recyclable waste. This was partially due to the fact that as the event went past sundown, the cleaners found it difficult to effectively sort the waste material they collected.
In the days after the event, the Wecyclers team identified strategies that could be used to improve the recycling process during future iterations of the festival and shared these insights with the Gidi Culture Festival organizing team. We were glad to be a part of GidiFest 2017 and hope to be involved in the festival series in the future.
