To commemorate Earth Day on 21 April, Nigeria’s inspirational social entrepreneur, Bilikiss Abiola, founder of WeCyclers, teamed up with Uber to create an innovative new campaign called ‘operation recycling unwanted waste’. The campaign was launched to be in effect throughout Lagos, in line with the initiative of Uber and WeCyclers to promote a clean and healthy environment.
The #UberRECYCLE campaign took place between 8am and 1pm on 21 April, encouraging local residents to take part in recycling, which is steadily gaining traction in Lagos thanks to WeCyclers, by providing free rides to people’s homes to collect their waste for free within the stated time frame. As part of the special #UberRECYCLE campaign, interested participants were able to request a ride to pick up their items for recycling (the campaign for the morning was not tied to the regular ‘uberX’ or ‘uberBlack’ cabs). The accepted items on the recycle list were paper, metal, plastic, and glass. This collaboration between Uber and WeCyclers created much needed awareness around recycling waste, climate change, and other pertinent environmental issues, as well as providing people with a strong platform for advocacy on these issues. This is a cause which WeCyclers is already advancing through its social and environmental innovation.
Lagos reportedly generates up to 12,000 metric tonnes of waste every day, based on its population combined with urban pollution. Broken down, 12,000 tonnes of waste would fit in 1,200 garbage trucks. Therefore, the commercial city of Nigeria is prone to various health hazards posed by the generated waste, and waste dumping, collection, and management remains a problem that the Lagos State Government is saddled with.
The WeCyclers social initiative offers recycling services to homes and communities in Lagos in order to inform and educate Lagosians on how waste pollution negatively impacts their health and the environment. The initiative also aims to give those in low-income areas the opportunity to create value from their waste by rewarding them with points for every collection. The points are then exchanged for prizes.
With #UberRECYCLE, Uber is proving to its customers in Lagos, Nigeria and other parts of the world that it truly cares about them and the planet. And what better way to celebrate Earth Day? #UberRECYCLE launched in Beirut, Lebanon last year and has been rolled out around the world this year.
To find out more about WeCyclers, visit their website www.wecyclers.com