In Nigeria, and not only, trash is collected by scavengers of all ages to gather income. What does this mean?
To many it is trash. To the few who strive to survive in Nigeria’s Cosmopolitan cities, it is a big avenue to put food on the table and to get rich quickly; depending on the fortunes one meets in the trash camp.
Who are these persons whose daily bread and mark of fortune are in the trash and dirt camps of Nigeria? They are the scavengers, able-bodied young boys found in every corner of Nigeria’s major cities of Abuja and Lagos and other parts, walking down the early morning roads and streets with their two-wheeler trucks or bags hanging tightly on their backs and with a stick in their hands. “Mosharaa” as people call them in regards to what they exclaim and chorus every morning as they drive or walk along the streets. “Mosharaa” is a Hausa word which means “Dirty-picker”.
While described as dirty pickers, quite interestingly they have been viewed as valuable resources for waste recycling by bigger Foundations/Companies, such as Coca-Cola. However, cooperatives and other local structures may provide more fair employment or an organized system.
These boys whose age range falls between 14-30 take this as their daily job as one who leaves in the morning may not come back till the late evening after he must walk around the city, visit different refuse dumps, and tour the streets in the search of Plastic cans, tins, metals, aluminium foil and pieces etc. These scavengers are mostly school dropouts who came from peasant homes and couldn’t afford to pay the fee for basic education in high school, so hitting the streets for cheap labour like scavenging becomes the only option for them in Nigeria.
A weak economic system
The economic measures of these scavengers can’t be overemphasised as they cut across great environmental work like keeping the city clean, as every trash they see finds its bosom in their trucks and bags. Because of their large numbers, they have significantly led to getting rid of plastic waste which was once and has continued to remain a major problem in Nigeria’s Cosmopolitan cities. The massive use of plastic cans for beverages by many industries has made plastic waste become a problem as it is almost found in every nook and cranny of these cities that are the major consumers of beverages in Nigeria. Thanks to the scavengers who have been doing a reasonable assignment of collecting plastics and taking them to the trash depot where they are consistently packed and transported to recycling plants. On the path of scavengers, their palms get oiled with some money each time they take out refuse from people’s apartments and this has in no little way made the careless dumping of refuse and littering of waste come to a minimal length in comparison to what we see a few years ago in Nigeria Cosmopolitan cities. Their proficiency to take out these wastes ( food, plastic and metal wastes ) has also lessened air pollution and water pollution which these wastes do pose, as they carry out this selfless mission daily, thereby reducing the obnoxious effect this waste poses to human health, most extremely food garbages which soils the air in most of Nigeria refuse dumps found in every street.
The crash site, which is the final assembly point where the scavengers bring the trash they were able to pack for the whole day, comes with a huge compensation too; the new oil rig per se. An oil rig is a big significance in Nigeria’s “Big money Bag” as oil has remained the major source of income for Nigeria’s economy, though the consciousness about climate change has found the oil sector wanting, the country has done little in planning for the transition to clean energy as the climate awareness and climate education has remained low in Nigeria industries and to the general public, just like in other Sub-saharan Africa countries.
Back to the scavengers, who may not figure out and understand the significant climate action they take as they are the practical actors of climate activism regarding the challenges of plastic concern. They (scavengers) are completely interested in the economic importance of their activities, a means to earn their daily living.
Waste Scavengers
On the trash site, they are rewarded by the trash site proprietors based on the amount and value of the waste they can fetch, these are calculated in pounds weight as heavier waste brings heavier money. This instigates the scavengers to collect as much trash as they can and compress them to get the desirable ounce that can guarantee heavier money, including plastic waste. Most of these scavengers have converted the trash site to their permanent abode as they cannot sustain the high bills of ever-increasing accommodation fees in Abuja and Lagos at the early stage. The trash site is large to accommodate them, and utensils to use in the site is not a challenge, as fortunately they always pick good utensils like plates, clothes, bags, and bed from the refuse dumps, and wealthy people in the cities most times discard their old or unwanted properties through them as professional decluttering function is not carried out too. The scavengers go ahead to perform the function of decluttering of homes; thereby adding another economic value to the housing sector too.
Government’s Inaction
The government’s positive response to this group has remained inferior and negligible. The scavengers too seem not to care once they are allowed to peacefully rig their oil from the dirt daily. But they have encountered challenges from law enforcement agents on many occasions, who have in most cases arrested them on the grounds of theft, burglary, and other unidentified crimes.
There can be a lot of synergy in the Government-scavenger relationship; If the government is on their path can reward them handsomely through permanent employment, decent accommodation and other incentives.
I believe there are no limits to the positive impacts of what the scavengers can achieve through their action which has remained impactful in reducing plastic waste and reducing the pronounced climate crisis in Nigeria.
Rethinking Climate 
Leave a comment