The Managing Director/CEO of the Lagos Waste Management Authority, LAWMA, Mr. Ibrahim Odumboni, has challenged innovative engineers in the state and the country, to design affordable bailing machines for plastic materials, to make recycling business more attractive and less capital intensive.
He also frowned on the use of brown-coloured pet bottles, for the packaging of plastic drinks, urging such companies to stick to white transparent ones.
Odumboni made the observations in his keynote address, at a stakeholders’ consultative forum for plastic recycling value-chain, organised by Giz, a German concern, at the Sheraton Hotels, Ikeja.
He observed that the bailing component of the recycling process, was a vital one, and locally fabricated machines would go a long way in simplifying the process, since they would come cheaper and more easily maintained.
Accordingly to him, “Bailing is an important component of the plastic recycling process. We need our innovative and enterprising engineers, to come up with locally designed and manufactured bailing machines, that would be durable and affordable for our recycling investors. It will be easy to maintain them. If we have this, the business of plastic recycling will gradually become less capital intensive and better domesticated. This is my challenge to our local engineers and I know they can do it.
“Honestly too, I do not understand why some manufacturers use brown-coloured pet bottles to package drinks for us to consume. Why? You do not see this in the UK or Dubai for example. What is wrong with using white transparent pet bottles? Please, such drink producers should take a second look”, Odumboni insisted.
Speaking further, he disclosed that no less than 500 bags of fertilizer was daily produced from organic waste at a LAWMA facility in Odogunyan, a surburb of Lagos, adding that several tonnes of briquette from sawdust, was also daily produced from another LAWMA facility at Agbowa, also a surburb of Lagos.
The LAWMA helmsman enjoined the stakeholders’, to shun needless competition and work in synergy and collaboration, to tap the huge economic opportunity in the business, noting that there was more than enough floating pet bottles, to go round all investors in the value-chain.
Odumboni took a swipe at some NGOs, exploiting the process with their cosmetic engagements, describing them as a burden, with their sharp and ill-intentioned practices, urging them to be truthful, honest and fair, in their chosen endeavour.
Also speaking, one of the panelists, Mrs. Agharese Onaghise, executive secretary of Food and Beverage Recycling Alliance, FBRA, noted that the 22-member group had been self-funding in its various interventions for plastic recovery, promising that the group would collaborate more, to stabilize the recycling value-chain, for fair reward to all stakeholders and investors.
The programme was attended by several prominent facilitators and panelists including, Dr.( Mrs.) Dolapo Fasawe, general manager, Lagos Environmental Protection Agency, LASEPA.