The founder of Reform Africa, a social enterprise aimed at transforming Africa's waste into wealth through recycling, Faith Aweko, says the fight against pollution needs to be collectively done by the public.
Aweko Faith, who founded Reform Africa, an organization recycling polythene waste into products such as bags, believes that even though the organization is educating children and adults about environmental conservation, the population needs to effectively cooperate.
“As Reform Africa, we are recycling the waste that comes from us all. From places such as shopping malls and markets. We need ways of reducing plastic pollution," she said.
Aweko continued, "We need to carry out selective sorting from households because in Uganda, we produce 500 tonnes of plastic waste every day, yet 51 percent is not collected but disposed of in trenches, by the roadsides, and does not get recycled,” Aweko explained.
She explained that Uganda's linear economy that practices consumption and disposal alone, without recycling, makes the environment get destroyed by non-decomposing plastic waste.
“As Ugandans, 70 percent of our economy depends on Agriculture, but the same land is facing improper plastic waste disposal. We should dispose of them properly because this is the only country and world. There is no planet B,” she beseeched.
Currently, Kampala city alone accommodates the highest amounts of plastic waste. According to NEMA, 51% of the plastic garbage in Kampala is disposed of in drainage channels, wetlands, natural watercourses, manholes, uninhabited plots, and on the roadside.
In Uganda, only 5% of plastic is recycled, yet plastic can take over 450 years to decompose completely.
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