Scavenging in most part of the world, is an important profession. Because the recycling industry is a major hub for economic development.
As an employer of labour, scavengers are the major beneficiaries of the recycling industry. They face the real risk of the business, as they are always vulnerable to environmental hazards. Due to the nature of their job. It is of course safe to call them the retailers in the chains of 'rubbish' distribution while the thrash collectors are the middle men between the scavengers and the recycling industrialists.
But one will expect that wealth should speak for hard-work. However in the recycling industry, the reverse is the case. The most vulnerable in the business is often miserable.
Although generally, the value of 'rubbish' is far lesser than the original commodities. But the potential dangers of a messy environment can not be over emphasized. Therefore, it is not too much to award the credit of 'life savers' to the scavengers all across the globe. In other words, they are friends of the climate.
Scavengers rescues our environment from drastic pollution that are harmful to human and animal's existence, plus they protect our properties from damage.
One would soliloquize, what an incredible job! Unfortunately in this part of the world, we probably need a lens to correct our myopic view about this interesting job. Despite that the recycling industry is gradually growing to the admiration of the environmentalists, the scavengers in the industry still remains a league of 'unsung hero'.
More pathetic is that it is not a proud job to behold. Asides from the poverty trademark with which they have been stigmatized, scavengers in Africa, especially Nigeria are also seen as even more dangerous than the 'rubbish' they search for.
To even think that ours is a big geographical space with a poor waste management system, the society needs these scavengers more than they need it. Dire need at that ! And on the side of the government, having failed to provide jobs for majority of it's population, a serious administration would have tapped into that area. Because logically, one needs no major empowerment to be a scavenger. All the government needs to do is to orientate the scavengers on risk management and encourage them in doing their job. With that, jobs will be created as the recycling industry will expand.
This may only take a single movement of the 'Waste Management Bill' by a digital wired lawmaker, and the Federal Ministry of Environment will be reformed. While state ministries too do the needful.
*“Environmentally sound waste management touches so many critical aspects of development,” said Silpa Kaza, World Bank Urban Development Specialist and lead author of the What a Waste 2.0 report.*
It is in this view that I submit, that waste management should be enhanced in our society. And one stakeholder that really matters is the recycling industry. And of course the life of that industry depends majorly on scavengers. So let's not joke with our friends.
*Written by✍🏾 Maiyaki Abubakar Damilare(MAIYAKI)*
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