Somali Refugees Recycle Plastic Waste in One of World's Biggest Camps (Watch Video)
Nelly Saiti, KRCS project officer said that plastic recycling is a sustainable business for refugees and has potential in the future.
Somali refugee Adow Sheikh Aden is among few volunteers who go around and pick up empty plastic water bottles in one of the refugee camps in the world. She fled war in Somalia and is now part of a small band of refugees who are fighting against plastic waste in Dadaab. The waste recycling project in Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS) was set up over a year ago has eight refugee staff. With promising results in the beginning, they aim to grow.
The project has recycled around six tonnes of plastic in one year. 80 percent of the waste that is now generated in the refugee camp is from plastic waste. Dadaab camp houses over 2,00,000 people and the recycling work gives the refugees a small income. According to a Thomson Reuters report, the refugees have churned some USD 1,580 last year.
Nelly Saiti, KRCS project officer said that plastic recycling is a sustainable business for refugees and has potential in the future. She believes it is a model for large camps such as the ones in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda.
Watch the video here:
The group is now planning to train more refugees so that they can take control of the project. According to the United Nations, some 500 billion disposable plastic bags are used worldwide.
Talking about the experience, Aden told Thomson Reuters, "Everyone used to laugh and say I am mad because I am collecting rubbish. Here it is not normal to do such things. But then I explained I am helping to keep our environment clean and our community healthy, and also I am selling the plastic to earn money so that I can manage my life and my family better."
She added, "We are collecting just a fraction of the plastic waste that is recyclable in Dadaab, and so a lot more revenue can be made from this. The next step is to train refugees in entrepreneurship so they can take control of the project, reducing their dependence on aid."
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 05, 2018 05:46 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).