From trash to treasure: Recycling for a positive change in the oldest refugee settlement in Uganda.
Moise Saliki, Founder of SSPI (the Shabani Social Progress Initiative).
”Waste is not waste until we waste it.”
From trash to treasure! This is the story of Moise Saliki, a young game-changer, environmentalist, and English teacher who cleans the streets of Nakivale Refugee Settlement from plastic waste and transforms them into beautiful flowers for home decoration.
Background
SSPI team walking on a mountain of plastic waste in Base Camp.
In Uganda, plastic companies produce thousands of tons of plastic each year. And every day, Uganda generates around 600 metric tons of plastic waste. Faced with the shortcoming of recycling solutions, most of the plastic debris remains in the streets or get burned, which become toxic to the environment.
Meanwhile, in Nakivale Refugee Settlement, markets, shops, and homes raise mountains of plastics and polythene bag wastes which end up in the Lake Nakivale, plantations, or litter everywhere in public areas.
Life in the settlement depends extensively on farming and fishing, but plastic waste becomes an obstacle to farmers in this region because of its huge contribution to soil infertility. Plastic waste bad disposal is among the main causes of drought in Nakivale which leads to an extreme shortage of food harvest in Nakivale. A farm that was able to produce 500 Kg of maize in 2010 is now producing around 300 Kg.
Furthermore, the life of the animals living in the lake is also threatened by plastic waste.
Though the World Food Programme (WFP) assures every refugee receives 8 kg of maize, 1.5 kg of beans, and 1 liter of cooking oil each month, they don't have enough food to feed themselves the entire month. To sustain themselves, a good number of refugees seek food security in farming and fishing in Lake Nakivale.
However, farming will not be possible for years to come in Nakivale if no one takes action to combat climate change.
SSPI Project
Flowers home decor made of plastic waste.
To combat climate change in one of the oldest refugee settlements in the world, Moise Saliki, launched SSP (Shabani Social Progress Initiative). SSPI is an initiative that unites youth in Nakivale to make awareness of the bad disposal of plastic waste and its effects on the environment. They take action on climate change by upcycling plastic waste to make stylish home decorations.
SSPI project was founded in 2019 when Moise joined Promise Hub, a startup incubator that provides him access to mentorship, digital opportunities, and the online market.
He is now aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN (United Nations) to protect the planet, life on land, life underwater, and end hunger. To mention that Moise is also an English teacher in the settlement. He ever encourages his students to take action on climate change in their homes or neighborhoods.
The Christmas Tree!
A mountain of plastic waste transformed into a 5 meters high Christmas tree on December 25th, 2020.
SSPI ended the year 2020 with a positive message to the community of Nakivale and everywhere in the world by making a 5 meters high Christmas tree made of plastic bottles. The action helped to clean the public space around WFP food stores in Base Camp.
The message was clear, written on the footing of the monument:
" WASTE IS NOT WASTE UNTIL YOU WASTE IT"
