‘How green economy will provide jobs in Nigeria’

Fraught with challenges such as insufficient road access for waste collection trucks and lack of management of disposal process on the site, which became a major cause for concern, the over-capacity Olusosun dumpsite was initially closed last December. However, lack of an accessible sanitary landfill resulted in the continued use of the dumpsite, which led to the March, 2018 fire.

These were the words of Mr. John Irvine, the Chief Executive Officer, Visionscape Sanitation Solutions.

Speaking in Lagos, he said: “As the smoke from Olusosun still rises, high on the priority list is the focus on the infrastructure required to manage waste effectively and developing the manpower and skills required internally to manage the innovative solutions.

“Visionscape will incorporate the marginalized; mostly residents on the landfill who depend on the informal recycling sector. Wealth creation and development of sustainable infrastructure would promote growth in the environmental industry.”

“Green economy creates value capable of empowering those at the bottom of the value chain. It allows citizens to finally be a part of the solution by taking responsibility for their immediate environment while empowering them, financially. This in turn has multiplier effect of disposable income trickling down to their immediate communities. The benefits of mass employment spurned from the efforts to grow the recycling and recovery industry will tie directly back to the government’s sustainability goals.

“Socio-economically, this shift must benefit the communities and the people. The environmental benefits of developing sufficient infrastructure that helps us manage waste are automatic but more rewarding for us as a company is being able to pay livable wages, offer benefits and provide safe working conditions to our workers. Green jobs are the future. Our focus is to do good business while doing good and injecting good jobs into the markets and knowledge transfer is a critical success factor.”

Visionscape Sanitation Solutions commenced the construction of the first engineered landfill in Nigeria. The Epe landfill, located in the northern side of Lagos State, opened in 2009. Today, the landfill essentially runs as a dumpsite, and is home to approximately 300 waste miners, receiving 30% of 13,000+ tons of waste generated daily across the State, ranging from industrial to medical and residential waste.
The Epe EcoPark will feature as materials recovery facility, an anaerobic digestion plant, a waste to energy plant amongst other features.