Wecyclers offers convenient household recycling service using a fleet of low-cost cargo bikes. We are powering social change using the environment by allowing people in low-income communities to capture value from their waste.
Wecyclers is a recycling company that’s picked up an international award in Belgium. It uses a fleet of bikes to collect waste from the poor neighbourhoods in Lagos. In return, it gives households points they can redeem for prizes, as an incentive. Wale Adebiyi, the company’s chief operating officer, told Newsday how the collection system works.
Wecyclers addresses the challenge of urban waste. When we began in 2012, only 40% of the city’s waste was collected and only a mere 13% was recycled.
People living in slum conditions without formal waste collection are at risk of property damage; the spread of diseases such as malaria, cholera, and dysentery; and undue psychological stress. Improperly disposed trash tends to clog gutters and drainage canals leading to floods during rainfall.
This trash can also create stagnant water pools that are ideal conditions for mosquitoes and other disease vectors to breed. Unmanaged trash heaps also create a burden for community residents who are forced to navigate obstructed roadways and deal with the smoke from frequent trash fires.
In addition, while Lagos is on track to become the third largest economy in Africa, 8.5% of its population is still poor and an additional 20% are vulnerable to poverty. Rapid population growth exacerbates this problem by ensuring that another four million residents will join to the already crowded megacity by 2020.
Concurrently, recycling firms in Lagos face a supply constraint—they cannot access adequate supply of quality materials required for processing. One of the large recycling firms in the country is operating its factory at 50 to 60% below capacity.
(Picture: Wecyclers collecting waste in Lagos. Credit: Nyacho/Arete)
