They all complement each other. Reduce the use of plastics by reusing the once you already may have, and recycle (transform it into something usable again-- it could be for another purpose other than its original intended design) the few you have to help make the environment more sustainable.
What About Our Youths and The Future?
In my city: Makeni (to be precise), in almost every corner you pass you will notice youths in small kiosks fashioning wearable shoes, amulets, shirts, household utensils, and tags from animal skin or some plastic (runner) or metal and aluminum scraps/waste society dumps in their gutters or street. Our wastes are generating wealth for both Economic, social and Environmental sustainability.
We have a lot to learn from some of these petty businesses if we are serious about economic diversification. The business of recycling waste and mitigating environmental damage is a futuristic (prospective) gain we should embark upon as African states.
If we want to promote Local Content Policy we may perhaps need to start with localizing our education design to a larg(er) extent to inculcate some of these skills into our curriculum design for high school pupils. We need to equip them with these ideas earlier in their lives, I believe as they move on/forward with their educational pursuit they can transform or compund the knowledge and skills gained (in)to creat(ing) business opportunities that will stimulate growth (entrepreneurship).
Another step to help promote these businesses could be the award of prices to some of the skilled (Craftsmen) in these businesses to help expand their businesses to make them more competitive and popular. Budget allocation to waste management should consider these types of businesses. They should encourage them to thrive so to boost reuse and recycling of waste in our communities. Grants and scholarships opportunities or fellowship opportunities to exchange ideas or impact more knowledge for these types of businesses should be made popular in order to maintain and strengthen their competitiveness in the market. Create the opportunity for them to travel and learn from the experience of similar businesses. They can adapt those skills and technologies into theirs to compete...
And most importantly, encourage local businesses to buy and sell their products. This is particularly the case for those in plastic-waste-brick manufacturing. Government should encourage bidders to use bricks or tiles made from these people in facilities they construct for them. We should encourage big businesses and influencial persons to use these recycled-plastic-bricks in their homes to make them fashionable in order to promote these businesses. Once the demand for them is high, more people will invest in the sector.
Meanwhile, we should also not forget to advance the knowledge and skills on/to reuse. For instance, I have observe that those melting plastics for reuse or brick manufacturing also mostly rely on fossil fuel or coals to melt them. This can also create adverse effect on the environment; it can cause pollution and carbon monoxide emission....
We should advance studies on local technologies to make them more sustainable or climate friendly. But that again 's the more reason we should teach the skills to the younger generation. As they move on in life, they will device techniques or technologies to reduce their environmental effect and of course rebrand them to more advance methods or results.
#Think_Sustainability
©Amadu Wurie Jalloh
®SAWN & The Emmanuel Ivorgba Foundation
