On July 8, 2017, Wecyclers conducted a community outreach program in the Oyingbo / Ebute Metta areas of Lagos to create awareness about the importance of recycling and register more households for our free household recycling program. Kansi Udochukwu of member of the Wecyclers Volunteer Initiative shares her experience of the program in this piece.
“I volunteered for the Wecyclers community outreach in Ebute Metta, and it was a truly eye-opening experience. I came across this event on the Instagram page of Ukeme Esiet, an employee of Wecyclers that is passionate about his work and is extremely active in his community. Being passionate about a clean environment that protects people from disasters and diseases myself, I decided to volunteer for this company that recycles different types of plastic and aluminum cans by reaching out to the lower class.”
“Openly talking to the merchants and hawkers on the streets of eastern Ebute Metta was a strange and exciting experience. The men that followed us to our destination in a purple car blasted pop music and kept the environment upbeat. Fellow volunteers made jokes and laughed as we talked to various people on the streets.”
“We told them that a company called Wecyclers will be ready to give them redeemable gifts just as long as they bring their recyclable waste. Most people got excited about the idea that they could receive gifts in exchange for items that cost them nothing. Even idle children became ecstatic and began to pick up whatever plastic they saw on the roads!”
“I learnt a great deal from the hours that I spent there: most people, no matter their background, are willing to protect and take care of their environment as long as it easy and convenient. Despite the heavy rain and floods, it was an amazing experience, one that I would definitely do again.”
Beyond participating in the community outreach program, Kansi also demonstrates her passion for the environment in other ways:
“I started a petition, about three weeks before the outreach and the massive inundation of water in Lagos, that insisted the Lagos State government provide dustbins in public areas to not only reduce waste pollution on the streets of Lagos but to abate floods that can be avoided by the removal of waste that clogs gutters and drainage systems.”
“I was going back to Ikoyi from my mom’s orphanage in Ajah when I saw a large amount of waste on every main road in the local government. I was so appalled that I decided to go around Lagos Island to take pictures of the appalling waste pollution that I plan to release to the public in due time. Looking at the pictures made me think of how long Lagos State has had this problem and how the problem will continue to insinuate if we do not take action. So, I made a petition that simply requests for the provision of public dustbins in Lagos State.”
“Though the increase of signatures has stagnated in the past two weeks, about 110 people from all over the world have signed the petition so far. I plan to spread it to more people to reach my 5000 signature goal. By making this petition, since the petition allows signatories to make comments, I inadvertently created a platform where people could express their annoyances and concerns over the effects of waste pollution. This encourages me to keep moving forward and to work together with people to eradicate waste pollution in Lagos State.”
You can find Kansi’s petition at http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/419/584/904/.
