Ibrahim Odumboni, managing director/CEO, Lagos Waste Management Authority, (LAWMA), has challenged innovative engineers in the country, to design affordable bailing machines for plastic materials, to make the recycling business more attractive and less capital intensive.
He also frowned on the use of brown colour 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, in Lagos.
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.
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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.
Speaking further, the MD said, “I do not also understand why some manufacturers use brown-colour 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.
He disclosed that no less than 500 bags of fertilizer were daily produced from organic waste at a LAWMA facility in Odogunyan, a suburb of Lagos, adding that several tons of briquette from sawdust, were also daily produced from another LAWMA facility at Agbowa, also a suburb of Lagos.
Agharese Onaghise, one of the panelists, 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 stabilise the recycling value-chain, for fair reward to all stakeholders and investors.
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