Agencies and groups, including humanitarian service providers in Anambra State have joined in the Five Million Guinness plastic challenge, by picking up plastics in various dump sites, drainages, roadsides and other parts of the state.
The five million Guinness plastic challenge is aimed at reducing the number of non-degradable materials, especially plastics littered in the environment which are harmful to the society.
News Echo correspondent who monitored the exercise, observed that areas scouted were Awka, Amawbia, Nnobi Ihiala and Onitsha.
Speaking to newsmen after the exercise, Managing Director of Anambra State Waste Management Authority (ASWMA), Mr. Amaechi Akora, assured that Anambra State will score high at the grand finale of the Guinness challenge which will commence from twenty-fourth to twenty-ninth of November 2020.
He stated that over six hundred thousand plastics have been picked and netted after the exercise which covered some major parts of the state.
Mr. Akora charged the citizenry to avoid improper disposal of non-degradable materials along the road sides, but develop the habit of dumping them at designated areas, were trash bins are made available.
Also speaking, a staff of the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESRA), Mr. Ben Osisi and the General Manager Anambra State Waste Management Authority, Mrs. Lauretta Obi, said the challenge will scale up sanitation exercise in Anambra and will help to contain causes and spread of diseases in the society.
Some participants, who fielded from newsmen at the event, also advocated proper disposal of non-degradable materials like plastics, stating that it could be recycled into many bi-products and create employment.
Some of the agencies and non-governmental organizations present under ‘Team Anambra’ were Anambra State Waste Management Authority, National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency, Youth Earnestly Seek Soludo, Women Initiative for Better Anambra, Nigerian Girls Guide Association and other relevant environmental agencies under the Ministry of Environment.
