PHOTO: Mr. Yubentino Omara pose for a photo with plastic bottles he gathered in Lira. Photo by Winnie Auma
In the streets and in the backyards of Lira City are seen urban dwellers, mostly the vulnerable women and street kids roaming with polythene bags from early morning to late evening, collecting plastic bottles for sale at a waste collection center adjacent to the Lira City Works Department. These plastics are later transported to Coca-Cola’s plastic bottle recycling plant in Kampala.
For Lira City which generates almost two tons of waste plastic bottles a day, its management has proven to become a huge opportunity for the population that lives on hands-to-mouth.
Although the rate of collecting the plastics picked up after the introduction of cash for waste in Lira City, Isaac Ojok 41, a resident of Starch Factory in the current Adyel Ward in Lira City West says he has been in the business of collecting and selling plastic bottles for the last 10 years. He used to collect and sell each plastic bottle at 100 shillings to individuals who use them to buy fuel, paraffin, or cooking oil.
But as time went on, factories like Mukwano started showing interest in buying plastic bottles, thus the increase in demand. Now, Ojok makes about 50,000 shillings on a weekly basis from selling a kilogram of bottles at shs 500, a business he is proud to own.
Ojok did not only buy a small piece of land and built a semi-permanent house but also married the mother of his two children using the proceeds from the business. He is also able to support his children’s education using the same.
Ojok’s wife, Pasca Akullu, 35 years, also joined the business recently. Akullu says the business has helped keep her occupied and able to contribute to the development of the family unlike in the past when she entirely relied on her husband.
However, Ojok is disappointed by the fact that most people think that whoever is collecting and selling plastic bottles lives on the street which is discouraging because he has made a life out of it.
Similarly, Yubentino Omara 78, a widower from Alango Sub-county in Otuke district said he resorted to the business after he felt sick years ago which rendered him unable to do casual jobs yet he needed to survive.
Omara, who used to work as a guard in homes and some factories said due to old age, he had to look for an alternative source of income since he wasn’t strong enough like in his youthful days. He says the money he earns from selling plastic bottles has enabled him to buy food and support some relatives living with him. Omara gets the bottles from restaurants, bars, and shops and the majority of his customers are those who buy fuel or paraffin in small quantities.
Ivan Okello, a 22-year-old boy from Abako Sub-county in Alebtong district said he dropped out of school in P.4 after the death of his parents and life became hard since there was no viable job he could do there. He moved to Lira at Teso bar in Adyel Ward where he now resides, making about 5,000 shs daily through the selling of plastic bottles and empty boxes. “From this money, I am able to buy food and pay my rent, something that has helped me to survive in the city,” he says.
Martin Odur, the Chairperson Lango Ghetto Youth, an association for children living on the streets said most of them make a living through sales of scraps like plastic bottles and metals, which money help them to buy food. He, however, noted that “some of them end up collecting items still being used by the owners like the charcoal stove and metals and end up being criminals.”
For this, Odur wants well-wishers, and non-governmental organizations to help decongest them from the street by engaging them in small businesses like managing garbage and slashing in the streets or even sending some to school. Odur says; “Some of these children want to study but there are no people to pay their school fees. Last year, 48 of them were offered scholarships at Lango Quran Primary School and none have dropped out, which shows their commitment.”
Meanwhile, Isaac Jackson Awio, the proprietor of Awio Scrap Dealers, the biggest scrap dealing company in Lira City has managed to employ 20 less privileged people from his love for plastics. The people are employed to collect, weigh and transport the plastics to the storage unit.
Awio started the business in 2017 with the hope of ridding Lira of the solid waste management challenges. At Awio Scrap Dealers, all kinds of scraps including plastic bottles, plastic tins or Jerry cans, card boxes, and metals are bought at different prices; shs 500 for a kg of any kind of plastic, shs.300 and shs.1,500 for a kg of card boxes and metals respectively.
His aim was to find a single place to store the plastics as a way of preserving the environment because plastic is a major cause of soil infertility which results in low crop yield and famine.
Leonard Otika, the Lira City Environmental Officer said the street kids collecting plastic bottles have hugely contributed to the cleanliness of the city because most of the bottles which used to end up in the drainage are collected which has also helped in environmental conservation.
“Lira City authorities should be grateful that the plastic waste collection is not only contributing to promoting an environmentally healthy City but has helped cut the cost of garbage collection through the self-employed vulnerable poor dwellers,” he said
In October 2019, several communities in Lira Sub County were cut off after a major access road in the area remained flooded following a heavy downpour. Again in February 2020, transport between Lira to Otuke via Alebtong district was disrupted following heavy rains that flooded Napak Bridge. With innovations such as these in managing plastic waste, these problems could be solved.
This story is done with funding from Northern Uganda Media Club (NUMEC) with support from the American Jewish World Service (AJWS).
