Lafarge Africa Plc has announced the celebration of its “2021 Geocycle week” with the theme “Think Planet, Think Solutions” to coincide with the World Clean-up Day on September 18th.
Geocycle partnered with the Food and Beverage Recycling Alliance (FBRA) to commemorate the World Clean Up Day with a cleaning exercise at Bariga market in Lagos. Employees and volunteers from Lafarge Africa Plc together with volunteers from the FBRA recycling partners participated in the cleaning exercise.
Daniel Adedokun, the Head of Geocycle, Lafarge Africa Plc remarked: ‘At Lafarge, our commitment to sustainability is unwavering. We drive a circular economy across everything we do, to keep materials in use for as long as possible, giving them a second life – and a third and a fourth – and using only what is needed to preserve nature. Improving waste collection is fundamental to advancing the circular economy – and to reducing marine litter.’
The Commercial Manager, Geocycle, Temitope Dosumu during the cleanup event said: ‘The purpose of today’s cleaning event is to sensitize people within Bariga community and its environs on the importance of sorting waste from source and cleaning up the environment and streets. This will go a long way to reduce the volume of waste that goes to the dump sites and drainages and will prevent poor waste management. The World Clean Up Day is a reminder that we all have a part to play in attaining a zero-waste future’.
Seventy-five percent of all plastics ever produced have accumulated in landfills and the natural environment. The world is on track to add 12 billion more tons to that amount by 2050, or more than double the already alarming amount.
Adedokun continued: ‘Geocycle is stepping up to this challenge by helping businesses achieve plastic neutrality. This year, Geocycle week’s theme is “Think Planet Think Solutions”. In Nigeria, Geocycle has partnered with some industries driving plastic neutrality since 2018. In 2020, 70,000 tons of various types of waste, representing 9% of its energy across the country, was co-processed in our cement kilns.’
The world is currently faced with the worst climate change occurrences in recent history; frequent and intense droughts, storms, heat waves, rising sea levels, melting glaciers and warming oceans. As such, every available measure at our disposal as a race must be utilized in ensuring a greener and smarter world that works for all.
Lafarge Africa Plc is a member of the Holcim group, the world’s leader in innovative and sustainable building solutions. The Group is committed to building progress for people and the plant in line with the four pillars of their sustainability strategy including Climate and Energy, Circular Economy, Environment and Community. As a Group fully committed to achieving climate targets that are validated by Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTi), Holcim also aims to accelerate CO2 reduction by 20%. Geocycle, which is Holcim’s waste management arm, sits on the Circular Economy pillar of its sustainability strategy.
To further reiterate the company’s position on waste management, Adedokun remarked, “As a responsible organization and leader in sustainable and innovative building solutions, it is our duty to ensure our resources are used in a closed loop system to minimize waste. Lafarge Africa is working at the highest level to reduce the impact of industrial waste’. He reaffirmed Lafarge Africa’s sustainability agenda that transcends individual efforts into partnerships with other organisations and companies to ensure progress for people and the planet and for a greener sustainable environment.
For Lafarge Africa, one of the key ways of meeting its global commitment to reducing carbon emissions is through investing in waste pre-processing and co-processing. This explains the solution in the 2021 theme of aiding “Planet Solutions” for plastic neutrality for many industries. This investment is steadily allowing us to move away from sources of energy which are main contributors to carbon emissions towards renewable sources of energy to power its plants.
Geocycle is the initiative for the future from today. According to the United Nations Habitat Watch, African city populations will more than triple over the next 40 years and as this happens more waste will be generated. It therefore becomes imperative to ensure that initiatives like Geocycle are available to ensure an efficient waste management system that will simultaneously destroy indecomposable waste, combat carbon emission and reduce dependence on fossil fuels.
Lafarge Africa Plc, a leading Sub-Saharan Africa building solutions company is a member of Holcim, a world leader in innovative and sustainable building solutions accelerating our world’s green transformation. Listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, Lafarge Africa is actively participating in the urbanization and economic growth of Nigeria, the largest economy in Africa.
Lafarge Africa has the widest footprint in Nigeria with cement operations in the South West (Ewekoro and Sagamu in Ogun State), North East (Ashaka, in Gombe State), South East (Mfamosing, Cross Rivers State) with Ready-Mix operations in Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt. Lafarge Africa has a current installed cement production capacity of 10.5Mtpa.
Lafarge Africa leverages on its innovative expertise to provide value-added products and services solutions in the building and construction industry in Nigeria. Additional information is available on the web site at www.lafarge.com.ng