With beautifully decorated plastic pavement and colourful designs of different products derived from wastes around the environs at the waste management office in Bo City, Mr Navo, focal person, Bo City Council expounded on some of the operational strategies the council has embarked on in striving towards sustainable waste management.
Highlighting on core initiatives behind the brilliant innovation of recycling, refuse of wastes into new useful products and better disposal of wastes, Mr Navo said that since the introduction of the local councils in 2004, the council has been grappling with several challenges with regards to waste management as a result of rural-urban migration and the multiplicity of wastes being churned out on a daily basis.
Mr Navo further added that the objective to recycle, reuse and better disposal of wastes into wealth is a collaborative effort of the Bo city council, Welthungerhife and the government of Sierra Leone to achieve sustainable waste management system which he described as one of the heavy duties of the council.
while reacting on some the problems before such initiative, Mr Navo stated that the council has engaged different communities with the initiation of waste idea contest pointing out that the idea was geared towards galvanising ideas that are useful in waste reduction.
”We have also encouraged the idea of a public private partnership with the training of youth groups in door-to-door garbage collection in ensuring that youths are involved in sustainable waste management activities.” Mr Navo stated.
Garbage collection and disposal which is not the answer to better waste management system because of landfill, Mr Navo said, the council initiated a project with small and medium enterprises in converting wastes into useful products with the supervision of a steering committee set up the council.
”These enterprises convert these wastes into useful products like the plastic tile, bags, foot wears and the essence is to prevent these waste from filling the dump site” he said.
Re-echoing the numbers of successes the council has made by its operational strategies over the years especially with regards to better sanitation in the Bo city and its environs, Mr Navo lamented on the non-mechanized method of recycling plastic wastes which is one of the major challenge of recycling 100% wastes.
While point out the low demand of these new products in the market, Mr Navo called on the public to come up with ideas in mechanizing the process of recycling waste as a way to accomodate more waste as against disposal.
By Sylvia Villa
Wednesday July 13, 2016
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