Greenhill recycles five ton waste monthly from 800 subscribers

By Damilola Kushimo

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Greenhill Recycling Limited, Mrs. Mariam Lawani has disclosed that the company’s recycling initiative has helped in curtailing indiscriminate waste disposal in Isolo Local Council Development Area (LCDA), saying the company recycles about five tons gathered from 800 subscribers in the locality monthly.

Lawani said the initiative was one of the sustainable ways to curtail indiscriminate waste disposal the residents have resorted to as they were given gifts in exchange for their wastes.

According to her, Greenhill Recycling encourages residents to keep their household wastes such as clean empty plastic bottles, aluminum beverages can, old newspaper for recycling instead of littering the community to achieve healthy society and by so doing getting some gifts.

“Prior to this time, responses from residents here in Isolo to this initiative was very poor, like everywhere in Lagos, people resort to several means of waste disposal and most times in an indiscriminate manner. But, so far in Isolo, we have the largest subscribers compared to other communities. We recycle about 5 tons of wastes from 800 subscribers in Isolo on monthly basis.

“In exchange for their recyclable wastes, we give them consumables, groceries, electronics, provision and so on, depending on the value and volume of their decomposable wastes which they might have accumulated to a substantial amount.”

Speaking on the persisting challenges and misconceptions of the initiative, she said: “Some residents still find it difficult to key into this initiative as they are still indifferent and ignorant, while some others are of great expectation from us. For instance, someone once requested for a car in exchange for 500 empty plastic bottles!”

“Someone also requested for money instead of the gifts. However, we are doing more to intensify the sensitisation on change of behavior to this initiative, we don’t want people to take their recyclable wastes to the dumpsite; they should separate them from their food items and exchange them for gift items.”

“We need support from government across all levels especially the local governments; they should look into the deplorable nature of most roads in the community. They should also help in creating points of deposition of recyclable waste at strategic places in the communities, with this we can achieve a cleaner and healthier environment.”