An Overview Of Our Solution
In Lagos, more than 30,000 metric tonnes of waste are generated daily. Sadly, more than 70% of generated wastes are taken to landfills and they end up as breeding grounds for diseases.
We realized that the solution to waste management problem in Nigeria is not policy enforcement but a mindset shift which includes sensitizing the public to see the treasure in trash.
In partnership with Ford Foundation, we are training 100 unemployed youths in Lagos state on how to remodel solid waste into furniture in other to reduce the amount of waste that ends up on landfills.
We also partnered with the US Embassy in Nigeria to provide 400 ergonomic classroom chairs from solid waste to public schools in Lagos and also train 800 college students on how to remodel solid waste to furniture.
- Population Impacted: 50 million people
- Continent: Africa
Last name
Organization type
Context Analysis
According to the recent World Bank report, the generation of solid waste is tied to population, income and urbanization and the per capita waste generation rate per person per day is said to be 1.42 kg.
Nigeria population is above one hundred and ninety million (190,000,000) based on the latest United Nations estimates. If we go by these reports, then it’s accurate to say that Nigeria generates 276,000 metric tonnes of waste daily.
Unfortunately, unlike Sweden and Germany with enviable recycling culture, most of our waste in Nigeria ends up on landfill sites and considerable number of them ends up in the drainage.
We provide sustainable eco-friendly solution to waste management problem in Nigeria
Describe the technical solution you wanted the target audience to adopt
We have created a niche around solid waste remodeling and we are changing the mindset of our audience by teaching them skills needed to remodel waste into cost-effective furniture. The technical solution involves household individually sorting their waste before disposing them off so that we can pick them up and remodel them into furniture which are then sold to locally and internationally.
Type of intervention
Describe your behavioral intervention
In Nigeria, it has been proven that 70% of our waste ends up on landfill with 30% finding their ways into our oceans and endangering aquatic animal lives. While government has come up with policies to stop indiscriminate waste disposal, it has failed to yield any positive result because majority of the perpetrators are poor and it's hard to enforce rules on a hungry soul. We decided to change the narratives through enticement. We created a solution where poor and rich alike can sell their solid waste and also learn skills to convert their waste to useful products that can generate money back for them.
As needed, please explain the type of intervention in more detail
We use social incentives through the identification of highest waste producers and partnering with them for waste disposal. This enables us to pick up waste from the waste producers and pay them for their waste which normally should have cost them money to dispose off. We were able to partner and bring more than 40% of the waste producers on-board.
We also use Choice Architecture through the sales of our eco-friendly furniture which is affordable for the poor who cannot afford the expensive furniture. We always tell them during the purchase time that the furniture are made from waste and this has changed the mindset of 85% of our clients. They now keep their waste and sell back to us instead of throwing them away.
Describe your implementation
We started training people on skills needed to remodel waste to furniture and created more than six hubs across the country so that major urban cities can partake in the waste remodeling training. We partnered with foreign organizations like Ford Foundation to train 100 unemployed youths in Lagos state on how to remodel solid waste.
We also started a corporate social advocacy that involves giving our furniture to public schools that lack furniture in other to arouse the curiosity of the students and also train them. We are working with US Embassy in Nigeria to train 800 students and equip 20 schools.
Our School project was adopted because the ministry of education saw that it’s cheaper to make our furniture and it last longer than the ones made from wood.
Our enabling factor includes the fact that we had international publicity from Reuters and Washington Post that was watched by more than 3 million Nigerians and that gave us a favourable mindset shift among the citizens.
Our major success factor is seeing our trainees’ start-up and gets international support for their projects. One of our trainees is changing 40 public schools Nigeria and teaching more than 1million students waste remodeling skills through early adoption scheme. We have also created more hubs in more states of the country.
One of the constant obstacles is government political stand which disallows organizations from performing their corporate social responsibilities to their communities. We were able to overcome that through the network we have built with proplr in government and our record of impact.
External connections
Our stakeholders includes international NGO's like Ford Foundation and Institute of International Education (IIE), International Agencies like the United States Department of States and the US Embassy in Nigeria. The Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Environment, and Individuals.
Our efforts connects with the educational sector because we were able to introduce recycling as a course in schools as a way to teach the children early. We also connect with the health sector through our constant sensitization against the effect of indiscriminate waste disposal and prominence of diseases. We also work with the Environment sector in creating environmental policies governing waste disposal in Nigeria.
Who adopted the desired behaviors and to what degree?
Youths between the ages of 18-35 are now aware of recycling and upcycling and they have started sorting their wastes in a bid to sell to us and make extra income. The ministry of education in Lagos state has also incorporated recycling into the course outline for public schools to teach them about waste management.
How did you impact natural resource use and greenhouse gas emissions?
Our sensitization discouraged people from openly burning tyres and we saw 20% reduction in the reported cases of burning tyres as a means to dispose them. We also sold more than 1000 pieces of furniture which naturally would have been made from trees. We had 2% impact on deforestation and people now see alternative raw materials to make their furniture.
What were some of the resulting co-benefits?
Community: We equipped 21 schools with our furniture made from waste and donated 418 chairs to public schools. We also trained 800 students through our School initiatives. As part of our community empowerment, more than 150 unemployed youths were trained to start-up a waste remodeling venture.
Biodiversity Conservation: There were reduction in the number of trees felled to make furniture through the introduction of our alternative raw materials.
Sustainability
More than 95% of our revenue is market-based. We generate revenue through the sales of our eco-friendly furniture.
Return on investment
With $10,000 we were able to implement the activities and the result we had in impact and replication of solution in different communities far outweigh the investment. Our trainees have generated more than $50,000 in revenue
How could we successfully replicate this solution elsewhere?
We have replicated the solution in three states of Nigeria and two more states are ongoing. With $10,000 the solution can be replicated anywhere. The key stakeholders are the inhabitants of the communities generating waste, the ministry of environment, ministry of education and private institutions.
Training and skill transfer is needed to teach the facilitators and engineers at each hub how to remodel waste.