The Imo Government is planning to build a waste recycling plant, Dr Okey Obidike, the General Manager, Imo Environmental Transformation Commission (ENTRACO), has said.
Obidike, who said this in Owerri on Tuesday at a news conference, said the establishment of the plant would change the nature of waste management and create new jobs.
He said the plant was part of the programmes of the present administration aimed at improving the living standard of the people.
Obidike said the recycling plant would improve commerce as recycled materials would be sold to industries, while bio-degradable waste would be sold as fertiliser.
He said the state government had begun the process of acquiring land where the recycling plant would be sited.
Obidike said the current culture of communal waste disposal would be discontinued because it constituted a health hazard to the citizenry.
“We don’t want to continue with the ‘Methuselah’ method of waste management; the old method, which is still in use, is what we used in the sixties.
“That method has failed the environment and with the establishment of this recycling plant, Imo will become the new face of the on-going green campaign,” he said.
Obidike said that in the interim, the government would buy more garbage excavation trucks to ensure more effective waste disposal in the state.
“The government has gone into the production of waste bins and trash bags which will be sold at N2,500 apiece,’’ he said.
He advised?the public to shun anyone parading himself or herself as a member of the ENTRACO Task Force on traffic, saying that the task force had been dissolved. (NAN)