New initiative to help tackle the global waste crisis

International relief and development agency, Tearfund, has launched a new initiative to help enable people in the UK to help tackle the global waste crisis. 

Currently 2 billion people – almost a quarter of the global population – have no waste collection of any kind.

In order to help tackle this, Tearfund is inviting people to ‘twin their bin’ by donating £45 to a social enterprise in Haiti, Pakistan or Uganda that will work to improve waste management.

Projects that will benefit from this initiative include Eco Brixis, an organisation in Uganda that has set up community recycling centres where people can bring any type of plastic and be paid for it in cash by weight.

The aim of this initiative is to create green jobs, raise awareness of the impact of waste on public health and the environment, encourage people to reduce their plastic use, and lobby governments and businesses to reduce the amount of waste produced in the first place.

CEO of Bin Twinning CEO Lorraine Kingsley said: ‘We take our rubbish collections for granted but soon notice when our bin isn’t emptied for some reason. Yet, billions of people don’t have this luxury and the only way they can get rid of their rubbish is through dumping or burning it, which puts their health at risk.

‘The mountains of waste you notice when you visit developing nations are a real culture shock – and a hugely neglected development issue.

‘Waste affects us all: urban plastics thrown into rivers end up in our oceans and UK waste ends up in illegal dumpsites abroad. We hope that by twinning their bin, people will become more conscious of their own waste generation too.’

Head of Eco Brixis, Andy Bownds added: ‘Eco Brixs has two ways of helping to change this: motivation and convenience. Money is arguably the greatest motivator so we buy every bit of plastic people collect, providing income to the community. Then, by setting up our recycling hubs in major trading centres and markets, we make it easy for anyone to earn through recycling. We’ll work with anyone and everyone: our planet is dying, sadly, but we can do something about it and we have to do it together.’

Photo Credit – Pixabay