In Jigawa, plastic waste business is booming

It is a common sight in major towns and villages in Jigawa state to see scavengers going from one street to the other searching for plastic waste at refuse dump joints. Collection of plastic waste for recycling is a booming business and major employer of youth in the state, Kano Chronicle, gathered. The business is […]

It is a common sight in major towns and villages in Jigawa state to see scavengers going from one street to the other searching for plastic waste at refuse dump joints.

Collection of plastic waste for recycling is a booming business and major employer of youth in the state, Kano Chronicle, gathered.

The business is attractive to youth because one can engage in it with little or no money. What matters in the business is acquiring the basic knowledge of identifying plastic waste suitable for recycling.

Kano Chronicle observed that scavenging of plastic waste is fast thriving than the metal waste business which is no longer flourishing in most localities.

Unlike plastic waste, one must have huge capital to go into metal waste business as such waste is always been sourced as second hand product.

One of the plastic waste collectors, Sani Sani alias Babban Damo, told Kano Chronicle that there were many of them everywhere across the state, so also dealers of the product.

He said size of a community always determines its price, saying “the bigger the plastic, the high the money a dealer can buy it from a scavenger.”

He said most of the dealers were agents of major dealers from Dutse, the state capital and other neighbouring states, adding that readymade market for the product made it possible for the business to keep on flourishing particularly in rural areas and villages.

“Youth, in virtually all villages in the state, engage in one aspect of the business or the other. It is common to find the plastic waste in our localities and the readymade market of the product made it possible for the business to keep moving.”

A plastic waste dealer in Dutse, Yusha’u Alhassan, said in a day over 50 collectors, bring plastic waste product to him.

Alhassan said there were over 100 dealers of the recyclable waste conducting business in Dutse alone and that each of them enjoyed patronage by the teeming unemployed youth.

“This estimation covers only the state capital. But hundreds of other dealers are also operating in towns and villages across the state on daily basis. Youth are into buying and selling of the plastic waste product. On estimate there are over 30,000 youth in the plastic waste recycling business,” he said.

He noted that dealers buy a kilogram of the recyclable plastic waste at the cost of N30 and that some bring as much 30 kilograms of the waste for sale.

On the type of plastic waste required, Alhassan said there were some categories of plastic that were not made of pure rubber and therefore they don’t melt no matter the amount of heat they were exposed to.

He pointed out that going by the number of suppliers across the state, it could only take a major dealer a week or two to have 30 tons of the waste.

The waste dealer, explained that plastic waste was unlike metal waste that could be transported as supplied, plastics waste must to be grinded otherwise a small load of it would fill up a trailer.

He said to make their business easier, dealers had decided to install a machine for grinding plastic waste before transporting same to cities for recycling.

“Plastic is unlike metal waste, you have to grind it before taking it to Kano or Lagos because without being grinded, only few tons will filled up a 30 tons capacity trailer.”
According to him, recycling had come to stay because most companies preferred recycling the waste than sourcing for fresh raw materials.

Special Adviser to Governor Mohammadu Badaru Abubakar on Empowerment, Mohammed Shehu Mujaddadi, said the state government had an interface with the plastic waste dealers in the state.

He said the dealers had already acquired a plastic waste grinding machine and government was looking into their request of buying a melting machine at the cost of N7.5m.

“A memo for the procurement of the melting machine for recycling of plastic waste products has been raised and as soon as approval is given, the machine it will be made available for the dealers in the state to start the recycling production.

“Plan is also underway to buy a pattern producing melting machine. We have a multipurpose machine in our skill acquisition center in Kazaure. By the time the plastic waste dealers grind and melt the waste product, the center will produce the pattern of the final product in term of rubber cups, plates, spoon and many others,” he promised.