Tendai Rupapa — Senior Reporter
Environment patron First Lady Dr Auxillia Mnangagwa yesterday launched a first-of-its-kind mobile waste disposal facility which separates waste from source as part of her zero waste management drive tailored to ensure people live in clean surroundings.
Dr Mnangagwa, who was recently appointed SADC Environment Patron, is also the Secretary for Environment and Tourism in the Zanu PF politburo.
The mother of the nation has been moving around the country promoting good waste management through awareness programmes and waste management training.
She also recently launched an underground colour-coded waste disposal facility in Ruwa which is ideal for waste separation and emits less odour.
It is also less prone to vandalism while having a high aesthetic appeal.
The First Lady urged the Environmental Management Agency (EMA) and the Zimbabwe Sunshine Group to place mobile waste disposal facilities in all districts and busy areas like bus termini.
Amai Mnangagwa says recycling waste materials turns waste into money, hence people should embrace the separation at source technique.
Unveiling the facility, Dr Mnangagwa, a champion of waste management, said communities needed to be educated on the importance of waste disposal facilities which were needed in public places.
She said she desired to see every citizen practising good waste management for the safety of the general public and the sustainability of the environment.
"We are growing from one stage to another and we are bringing this to the people. When using this facility, one must have the presence of mind not to mix items.
This facility is written paper, glass and plastic so our people need to be educated on the importance and use of this facility. We want to see this type of equipment in places where we have a lot of people and a lot of litter," she said.
Dr Mnangagwa said people must not throw litter everywhere.
The mobile waste disposal facility that was launched by Environmental patron First Lady Dr Auxillia Mnangagwa in Harare yesterday.
"If something like this comes to us, this is very important and should be embraced. From the mindset, you know what you are doing, what you are holding, you know where you are going to put it which is very important for our day-to-day living. Healthwise, this is commendable because we should take pride in creating a clean, safe and healthy environment for the nation," she said.
The director-general of the Environmental Management Agency (EMA), Mr Aaron Chigona, paid tribute to the First Lady for her awareness campaigns which he said were leading to a change in the mindset of the people.
"We are here to showcase a programme that our patron, the First Lady started, which is zero waste movement. We are taking it to a further step. She launched the underground waste receptacles and we have now developed this movable receptacle which can be taken from one place to the other as we implement our zero waste management. We are encouraging people to use this for waste sorting at source. We are celebrating this initiative as we take it up as a build-up to the national conference where we think our patron would be able to showcase how she has done the work in terms of the zero waste movement as well as encouraging every citizen to embrace waste management," he said.
The advantage of the mobile waste disposal facility, Mr Chigona said, was that it could be taken where litter is.
"The advantage of the mobile waste disposal facility is that it can follow where gatherings are which is not similar to where we have the underground waste receptacle which we launched in Ruwa. So we encourage those who will be having events outside their places to make sure that this is available. We take it, we sort our waste as soon as we are done we have our buyers of waste.
"We sell it to the companies that are doing recycling. The work of sorting waste is a long process which we think our patron has managed to take this far. With this one, it can be adopted by a community where it can be pushed from one household to the other at the end of a household community it means it would have been filled, our buyers are there they can buy the waste from there thus empowering communities.
"We have realised that waste sorting as we started with the movement of zero waste with our patron, she has done a lot in terms of awareness campaigns. She is taking the message to the communities.
"When we started, compliance was not at a level we wanted it to be but with this vigorous advocacy by our mother, the First Lady, we have seen that compliance is going up. That has also caused us to say how do we match that now, thus we are putting this structure which we think can be developed into a bigger receptacle which can be in bigger wheels, which we can use to follow our waste and make sure that we improve on the compliance that we are seeing as we celebrate the efforts that our patron has made in educating our communities," he said.
Speaking at the same occasion, Mr Ronny Mbaisa, the executive director of Zimbabwe Sunshine Group, who are youngsters involved in recycling praised the First Lady for her waste management initiatives.
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"Today we are here through a programme that was launched by the mother of the nation relating to zero waste where she made us foot soldiers to execute the programme on the ground.
"As we run with the programme, there are a lot of things that we have accomplished as we work with the First Lady.
"Some of the things include this facility and we are saying if people can separate waste, it helps us as youngsters because over 5 000 people were trained in waste recycling by the First Lady in partnership with EMA.
"This reinvigorates the programme and as we speak, we no longer collect waste in bits and pieces but now pick it from one place," he said.
A passionate and committed player in environmental management and protection, Dr Mnangagwa, who is also signatory to the global zero waste management is working in conjunction with EMA to promote good waste management practices with thousands of women, men, youths and those with disabilities being trained in recycling to reduce waste and create employment.
Some beneficiaries under the programme are turning waste into products that are being exported to other countries.
