Solving 36 000 000 problems together in Kano
With the ongoing COVID-19 campaign, Empower work with organisations like Anthophila in Kano, Nigeria, to address the challenge of plastic pollution and provide more income for a vulnerable group of people. And we have good news; this summer over 60 tons (!) have been collected so far - read on to learn more!
The pandemic have many implications — the fall in oil prices have also lead to massive drops in the value of recyclable plastic. This is a disaster from an environmental perspective, but also for a huge group of people depending on income from waste picking.
Using the Empower platform we have worked with Anthophila in June and July to focus on incentivizing collection during challenging times — the result so far: More than 60 tons of plastic waste from water sachets collected! The plastic bags made of LDPE polymer represents a big pollution problem, and traditionally been hard to collect with lack of recycling value. Now, we can change this together:
Video showing how the plastic is being collected last month
During the pilot phase the continued pandemic situation in Nigeria is of course still challenging. But thanks to the campaign support, more sanitizers and basic protective gear have also been covered to ensure safer collection according to Government requirements.
So far, Anthophila have established 8 ad-hoc collection points in Kano region where over 60 tons of water sachets have been collected, providing income for more than 4000 people so far. How many water sachets are we talking about? Roughly 36 000 000 (!) cleared off the streets, turned into value recycling instead of polluting the environment, clogging suers, or ending up in the ocean.
We want to send our thanks to both the local partners and Empower supporters for making this happen, and taking part in the next chapter of kick-starting waste management globally.
Read more and be part of #aworldwithoutwaste at empower.eco ♻️💪
