The Coca-Cola Foundation (TCCF) has provided a grant to support local NGO, Statewide Waste and Environmental Education Foundation (SWEEP FOUNDATION), on their ‘Green Campus Project’, designed to facilitate the implementation of a comprehensive waste management program across selected university campuses in Nigeria.
The move is geared towards addressing the challenge of proper waste management, a challenge that requires bold solutions.
The project was officially launched on April 5 at the University of Ibadan. The event witnessed the donation of plastic waste collection assets and infrastructure including cargo tricycle, receptacles and PPE equipment.
Phillips Obuesi, President, SWEEP Foundation, said at the event: “We understand how important it is to protect and preserve our natural ecosystem resources through intentional sustainable action, which we must all commit to, and that is why this initiative, the Green Campus Project, funded by The Coca-Cola Foundation, is being launched today in Nigeria’s premier University.
“We are proud to flag off this program here, to advance our efforts towards environmental sustainability and along with this objective, also, facilitate wealth creation for our youth, leveraging our under-utilized waste value chain.
“The Green Campus Project connects fundamentally with two of our critical success levers and sustainability priority points which focus on supporting ecosystem resilience through proper packaging waste management and building socio-economic resilience through economic empowerment activation in local communities. We do hope that youth in and around Ibadan will adequately benefit from it.”
The pilot phase of this project will collaborate with selected higher educational institutions in Nigeria. The project will provide waste and environmental education, establish university campus community drop-off points and recycling hubs, while simultaneously providing an additional income stream for the campus community youth who participate in the programme. The implementation of this waste reduction scheme will facilitate the deployment of key infrastructures and mobile collection receptacles across participating institutions in the country. Overall, this programme will help accelerate and improve collection of discarded plastic bottles (PET) leveraging targeted awareness programs on campus community recycling.
The Green Campus Project is scheduled for the following universities- University of Ibadan, University of Benin, University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus, University of Port-Harcourt and Obafemi Awolowo University. And will focus on galvanizing support for more sustainable means of dealing with packaging waste through cost effective aggregation models. It also aspires to eliminate waste incineration, a common practice in many institutions in Nigeria.
The project will support 250 students with training, logistic, PPE and other incentives in each campus-based recycling and waste collection hub as they volunteer the various drop-off centres.
Obuesi reiterated the impact of the programme on the selected universities and surrounding communities saying that “University campuses suffer from indiscriminate waste disposal habits of its staff and students, mostly occasioned by low – level awareness and inadequate infrastructures to support proper waste management across these campuses. Tertiary institutions as change agents in society play a central role in supporting students to forge more sustainable habits that are necessary to tackle plastic pollution. The Green Campus Project is therefore strategically positioned to lead the charge in these universities.”
Speaking on this project, the President of The Coca-Cola Foundation, Saadia Madsbjerg, said, “We recognize that student communities are critical stakeholders in our broad strategy to preserve and protect our ecosystem. We are proud to support this initiative which will not only improve the waste value chain of Campuses in Nigeria but will also help inspire an entire generation of environmental advocates”.
In collaboration with its local implementing partner in Ibadan, Recycledge, SWEEP Foundation will be mobilizing corporate businesses, government agencies, and other stakeholders, to harness the power of partnership in addressing the plastic waste challenge in the University of Ibadan and its surrounding communities.
and then