Recycling waste contributes significantly to city cleanliness and environmental preservation. It decreases landfill trash by diverting a large volume of material from landfills. Cities may limit the amount of waste that must be disposed of in landfills by recycling items such as paper, plastic, glass and metal, reducing waste disposal’s environmental effect.
Proper recycling can assist in minimizing waste in cities. When recyclable items are disposed of in appropriate recycling bins or facilities, they are less likely to end up as litter on streets, sidewalks, and public places, helping to clean up the urban environment.
Hence, urban dwellers are recommended to practice effective waste management to save resources. Recycling garbage saves valuable natural resources, including wood, water and minerals. Reusing materials allows communities to minimize the demand for raw material extraction and manufacturing processes, which can have a positive influence on the environment and climate change mitigation efforts.
According to certain research, recycling waste can save energy since it frequently uses less energy than creating new products from raw materials. For instance, recycling aluminum can save up to 95 percent of the energy required to make aluminum from raw materials. These energy savings contribute to overall environmental conservation and reduce the carbon footprint associated with resource extraction and manufacturing.
More significantly, it protects the environment, which is critical to combating climate change. Recycling waste helps safeguard the environment by lowering pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions caused by waste disposal and the production of new products. This helps to clean the air, water, and soil in metropolitan areas.
Recognizing this, successive administrations in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital and headquarters of international organizations, have prioritized city cleanliness. They have developed a variety of waste disposal solutions. As a result, recycling waste and cleaning up Addis Ababa are critical measures in promoting environmental sustainability and improving the city’s general quality of life.
The city administration has also conducted public awareness campaigns. It is launching educational programs and initiatives to create awareness about the benefits of recycling and good trash management. This can contain information on how to properly sort and dispose of various forms of garbage and the environmental benefits of recycling.
In addition, the city is preparing recycling infrastructure. It establishes recycling centers and facilities across neighborhoods to make it easier for residents to recycle their garbage. This might include establishing collecting stations for recyclable products such as paper, plastic, glass, and metal.
The city administration also starts collecting waste and disposing of it through individuals and associations. It has been working on improving waste collection services to ensure that trash is efficiently collected from homes, businesses, and public areas. Additionally, it has been implementing proper disposal methods for hazardous waste and electronic waste to prevent environmental contamination.
The city administration organizes community clean-up events regularly, with the participation of senior authorities. They are arranging regular community clean-up activities in which individuals, local groups, and government agencies work together to pick up waste and clean streets, parks, and other public areas. Apart from that, it preserves green areas or spaces for the residents.
Following the country’s political reform in mid-2018, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed developed and began executing some projects to beautify the city. The programs are critical for preserving and beautifying green areas, parks, and public gardens, resulting in a cleaner and more appealing urban environment. It also coordinated and established partnerships with businesses to promote sustainable practices, minimize waste output, and implement recycling programs in their operations. As a consequence, the city administration has made the city not only clean but also created job opportunities for the city residents to make money.
According to the Addis Ababa Cleansing Management Agency, more than 746 million 733 thousand Birr was earned by recycling waste in the last six months. Addis Ababa Cleaning Management Agency Recycling and Recycling Centers Director Bayush Tadesse told the Ethiopian Press Agency that the agency is doing various activities to handle and reuse waste properly. Thus, in six months, more than 746 million birr was earned by recycling waste.
In the past six months, the agency has been working to create awareness in various ways and prepare cleaning campaign plans so that the society understands that waste is a resource and disposes of it properly. The agency has also been able to organize different associations to separate wastes for recycling and composting and use them in different ways for recycling, she said.
Moreover, the community develops good habits for properly handling waste. Their understanding of separating waste is constantly improving and increasing. As a result, 44 thousand 665 tons of waste were collected and used for recycling in half a year. The other one was to organize 45 compost-producing associations in every district. It is planned to produce one thousand 500 tons of compost in these associations, and one thousand 733 tons of compost has been produced and put to use.
As a result, the associations engaged in recycling and compost production were able to earn 746 million 733 thousand 19 birr. More than 480 jobs can be created in the recycling sector. By talking to other institutions about the materials produced by recycling and the compost that is produced, it is possible to create a market connection, which has enabled the associations to work with focus and has enabled the sector to perform better regularly, she stated.
She also mentioned that the amount of waste collected and the income generated have increased compared to the same period.The director also stated that although the community’s understanding of waste recycling is improving, it is still not thought that the problem has been completely solved, and legal action is being taken against those who do not dispose of waste properly and do not clean the five radius around them.
Indeed, senior management’s devotion, community waste management systems, and policy execution have resulted in major improvements to the city’s appearance. Currently, by applying different steps, Addis Ababa may make tremendous progress in recycling waste and cleaning up the city, resulting in a cleaner, healthier, and more sustainable urban environment for its inhabitants.
Furthermore, recycling waste makes a significant contribution to city cleanliness. It reduces the negative effects of waste disposal on the environment while simultaneously encouraging a greener, more sustainable urban environment for people. Therefore, the experience of Addis Ababa should be supported by environmental activism to make it constant and expand to other cities.
BY EPHREM ANDARGACHEW
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD SUNDAY EDITION 4 FEBRUARY 2024
