New phase of waste disposal: Recycling plant springs up in Aba
From Boniface Okoro, Umuahia
A plastic recycling plant would be inaugurated in Aba to mark the 2025 World Recyling Day as part of plans by the state government to improve waste disposal and management in state, the Abia State Environmental Protection Agency (ASEPA) has disclosed.
ASEPA General Manager, Ogbonnia Okereke, made the disclosure during a post-State Executive Council Press briefing at Government House, Umuahia, where the Commissioner for Information, Prince Okey Kanu, announced that the state has approved new initiatives by ASEPA that would take waste management in the state to the next level.
The initiatives include house-to-house refuse collection and introduction of tariffs to be paid by residents.
Okereke told newsmen that a big recycling company is setting up a plastic recycling plant in Aba which would be inaugurated on March 18, 2025, during the 2025 World Recycling Day celebration.
He said the state government was partnering many organizations to set up similar processing and recycling plants across the state and explained how the government the plans to take waste management to the next level.
The General Manager who made it clear that ASEPA and the Ministry of Environment were working together to deliver on state government’s mandate of keeping the Abia environment clean and healthy, said: “We started with collection (waste collection), so to speak, but now, we want to move into the next level at recycling. We are transmitting from a linear economy to circular economy in the area of waste management.
“What we are saying in essence is that instead of wasting the waste, we can always find a way of doing something else we can do with it. We are in talks with different groups, different organizations to discuss how they can partner with us in these areas.”
Earlier while kicking off the Press Briefing, the Commissioner for Information, Prince Okey Kanu, had announced that ASEPA was now focusing on the next level of waste management.
Kanu explained that the new waste management process entails the modern collection of waste at the point of generation such as residential areas and business premises.
The Commissioner said: “The state government has made very tremendous progress in terms of environmental sanitation and cleanliness of our public spaces through the activities of ASEPA.
“ASEPA is poised to run a hybrid that will involve central collection of waste in places such as markets and in some specific areas with high traffic, population and of course narrow or arterial roads.”
He also announced that ASEPA would colleteing rates from residents to be able to sustain its new methods of operation.
“They (ASEPA) are also on the verge of implementing their new tariffs and rates across the state. The State government will in some way offer some assistance in this regard because waste disposal is seen as a social service.
“However, the citizens, will to a reasonable extent, bear some burden in terms of paying some tariffs for waste disposal services, to make the process more viable and efficient,” Prince Kanu said.
The Commissioner sought assistance of members of the public to help ASEPA and other agencies of government to monitor government’s assets against the activities of social deviants.
“In this wise, they need to monitor the activities of scrap dealers who tamper with ASEPA buckets. We have instances of scrap dealers who steal or remove
ASEPA buckets. So, we need members of the public to take ownership of these assets and help in monitoring the activities of such unscrupulous individuals in the society,” he said.
Furthermore, Prince Kanu urged the public to guard against being defrauded by fraudsters who may pose before them as ASEPA Agents collecting rates for the agency. “They also need to be wary of some criminals and members of a syndicate who defraud members of the public in the name of ASEPA. We are using this opportunity to encourage members of the public to report suspected cases of extortion of people to the Harmonized Task Force and other law-enforcement agencies,” Prince Kanu said.
