Hundreds of people including environmentalists, celebrities and children trooped out last weekend to join Shoprite for a cleanup event aimed at getting more people into collecting litter from Nigeria’s beaches, markets and waterways.
The event tagged, ‘Africa’s Biggest Cleanup’ involved over 6000 volunteers across the continent who were galvanized to be part of cleaning their communities and imbibing the culture of recycling.
In Nigeria, the cleanup exercise took place in 45 selected locations.
The first of the events took place last weekend in collaboration with Wecyclers, the Lagos State Waste Management Authority (LAWMA), Visionscape, Kids Beach Garden, Sustainable Africa Waste Initiative, Pick That Trash, NGO’s and a host of individuals.
At Elegushi Kids Beach Garden, children and volunteers picked the thrash and plastics littering the beach and planted trees to further commemorate the tree planting day organized by the state government.
Water sachets popularly known as ‘pure water’, PET bottles, fast food containers, along with crisp, sweet and lolly wrappers, were the third highest find with almost 56 items per 100 metres.
The founder of Kids Beach Garden, Doyinsola Ogunye, who lauded the initiative by Shoprite, advised Nigerians to stop the habit of littering their community in order to protect the environment.
She noted that the highlight, for her was the fact that Shoprite went the extra mile to invite children from Ajegunle to teach them about recycling waste and protecting the environment while providing them with an opportunity to have fun at the beach.
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