Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State on Tuesday inaugurated a N1bn material recovery facility in Igando, designed to convert waste into reusable materials.
The first phase of the project was delivered with machines that have the capacity to process different types of refuse into raw materials for plastic and rubber industries.
Inaugurating the project, Fashola said it was a demonstration of the government’s commitment to improve the environment while creating some economic benefits.
He said that the project was conceived out of the need to ensure a cleaner environment by converting waste, which could have been a burden, into usable materials.
According to the governor, the facility is a conservation strategy to confront the threats of climate change and will also provide jobs for residents.
“This is a material recovery facility and what will it be doing? The whole world is re-using, the whole world is conserving, so nothing really will ever go to waste in any significant proportion.
“So that is what we are signing on to, we are joining the whole world by having this project.
“What we now have is a new problem. Our problem before was that we were the dirtiest city in the world, a reputation we have now consigned to history.
“Now the new problem is how to move our refuse. The problem is how to get more refuse, because this facility needs more refuse to run.
“The sustainability of this factory now is how much refuse it can get, and as we have been told, it will service 130 trucks on a daily basis in the first phase before the expansion comes,” he said.
The governor said that the second phase of the project would commence by December.
He said that on completion, power would be generated from refuse processed at the facility.
Fashola said what that meant was that people in Igando, Egbe and other areas around the facility should expect regular power supply by 2016.
He said the facility was in redemption of his electoral promise to ensure a cleaner environment, adding that his job was done with the delivery of the project and several others.
The governor urged residents to give the needed support to the incoming administration to bring about a cleaner and more sustainable environment.
Mr Tunji Bello, the Commissioner for the Environment, thanked Fashola for his support, saying his belief in the project ensured its actualisation.
He said he was optimistic that the project would not only promote the environment, but would also help the state in mitigating the effects of climate change.
Mr Ladi Balogun, the Managing Director of First City Monument Bank, which financed the project, said the facility had a high economic value.
He said over N1bn was invested in the project, which if operating in full capacity, would contribute N3bn to the state’s GDP annually.
Balogun said his bank was proud to be associated with the project, promising that the organisation would continue to partner the state.
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