by Aisha Bada
All activities of humans creates enormous amount of waste on a daily basis which if unchecked leads to environmental pollution.
In Nigeria, our rising population have placed us on the global map as a major generator of solid waste. Yearly, we create well over 14 million tons of solid waste and 40,959 tons of municipal soild waste daily with only 20-30% of the waste collected. The citizen waste generation per day is put at an average of 0.65 kg.
Waste disposal, which is the process of removing and destroying or the storing of damaged, used or other unwanted domestic, agricultural or industrial products and substances have over the years, been prioritized over waster management in Nigeria. But recent activities by the relevant state actors have seen some effort to embrace waste management.
The disposal methods employed includes burning, burial at landfill sites or at sea, and recycling, while waste management speaks of the activities and actions required to manage waste from its inception to its final disposal. This includes the collection, transport, treatment and disposal of waste, together with monitoring and regulation of the waste management process.
As part of effort to embrace internationally accepted waste management practice, we have started sorting our solid wastes into categories especially at dump sites. But there is an urgent need to sort it at source (our homes).
This project “Our Earth” shows various activities that take place in order to sort out our solid wastes. It reflects on the amount of waste that managers sort daily for recycling, contributes to the fact that our earth is being polluted and it needs our support to care for it.
It is a call on each citizen to begin to take a closer look at why we do what we do, why we use what we use and what benefit or harm it does to Mother Earth and her peoples.
Getting answers to the above questions will move us closer to solving this problem of waste management. It would also help us reduce its generation at source. It’s also a call on us to reuse items and or materials from our daily activities and to sort our waste from points of its creation.
Who do we blame for our actions towards ‘our earth’ other than ourselves?
This project was carried out by Aisha Bada