Last post, I wrote that you should ‘Be prepared to be enlightened, engaged and inspired’. The time has come!

My Africa Is has just released its much anticipated first episode of their ‘The Lagos Chronicles’. My Africa Is drops in on Bilikiss Abiola, one of the founders of WeCyclers, an outfit that has involved an entire community in recycling plastics, that would usually end up on the streets and gutters of Lagos.
 

 
Side story: My Dad is a religious recycler. Every week when the recycle bins go out ready for weekly collection, ours is ALWAYS full. My Dad’s enthusiasm for recycling has turned my Mum and I into avid recyclers. However, every time I go to Ghana, I itch because of the amounts of recyclable material in particular plastic which litters the country.

I thought maybe if divider bins like the ones we have in Australia which separates cans, general waste and plastics were introduced in the cities, then maybe this could start a recycling culture in Ghana and we could find ways to reuse cans and plastics, and properly dispose of general waste rather than burning it or dumping it anywhere. In my mind it seemed like a great idea, but it wasn’t practical. Even with the divider bins and household recycle bins in Australia, people still don’t recycle. So how much more would in Ghana?

This whole issue of recycling in Ghana has bothered me for years, and then I watched My Africa Is: The Lagos Chronicles – WeCyclers. The idea behind WeCyclers is so simple yet effective. It engages the community and helps the environment all in the name of recycling. It is slowly creating a recycling culture which I hopes ripples throughout Africa over time.