"The safe disposal of plastic waste is a perennial problem that gets worse by the day, so we have to be committed to efforts to control it".
These were the words of John Dada in 2010 and at last it seems that Fantsuam Foundation will be leading by the way as it tackles this perennial problem with the help of Ron Dennis of Developing Technologies and his University students aided by funding from Comic Relief.
The last details are being finalised now for the initial 3 month feasibility study and at this week’s UK-Nigeria meeting John informed us, via email, the status of the visa application for Linus Nok, the Nigerian Engineer who will visit the UK to receive training and bring his local expertise to this project.
Linus is an expert in compressed earth bricks and it will be interesting to hear how he gets on with recycling plastic! Eventually the hope is that sustainable livelihoods will be generated. The ecological and economic benefits of plastic recycling are numerous. Many valuable cattle, for example, die as a result of ingesting this waste plastic which is devastating for this poor rural community and causes real hardship and suffering for the family affected.
Eventually, the following issues will also need to be addressed namely
1 Identify the density and nature of the waste.
2 Evaluate the specifications and market for plain tiles and the economics of production
3 Evaluate the demand for rain-water harvesting systems that could be produced from the tiles, potential market outlets and economics of production
4 Identify the market for other products that could be produced from the tiles and assess the economics of production
5 Research local availability of resources needed for construction and operation of a plastic recycling plant.
Photo By Marcus Simmons of the Waterfalls on the River Wonderful which runs through Attachab