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A group under the umbrella of the Centre for Earth Works (CFEW) conducted a community clean up exercise to mark the World Clean-up day, 2020.

The Organization collaborated with Better Earth Foundation, Children Orchestra Nigeria and Tekan Peace desk to carry out this engaging community service. The activity features awareness creation by the group on the dangers of plastics in our environment, followed by the clean up exercise that was carried out in all the segments of the Jos Museum that covers various departments. One outstanding activity carried out by the team was the Brand-Audit which was done after the clean-up exercise. Plastic’s brand audits is a citizen science activity that involves counting and documenting the brands found on plastic waste collected at a cleanup to help identify the companies responsible for plastic pollution.

Some of the key Plastic pollutants identified after counting over 14800 pieces includes: PET bottles, water sachets, caps and covers, diapers, menstrual pads, Styrofoam food packaging, sweet and biscuits wrappings, ropes, broken plastic pieces, pipes, cigarette butts, cans, tetra-packs, poly-bags and more. Major Brands identified are: Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Nigerian bottling company (NBC), Nestle, Swan, cway and Nasco.

Jos Museum is located in Jos, Nigeria, established in 1952 by Bernard Fagg and was originally the National Museum.

In a community clean up conducted at the Jos museum on the 25th of September, 2020, the Team Lead of the Centre for Earth Works Mr. Benson Dotun Fasanya calls for innovative and secured actions at all levels to end plastic pollution. He added that “it will never be enough”! No matter how hard the agenda of recycling is promoted and the rejection of the use of single used plastics is pushed, it will not be enough to solve the problems we humans have created in the “plastic age”, therefore the government has a critical role to play in the implementation of policy and enforcement of law. Corporate polluters especially the local and global brands must be charged the compulsory duties of taking up the Producer extended Responsibility to take back pollutants from the environment. Lastly citizens have a role to play in the quest for a sustainable environment by demanding for a shift to circular economy.

Miss Rose wisdom who is the Coordinator of the Better Earth Foundation added that plastic pollution poses a serious threat to aquatic and terrestrial animals. The ingestion, strangulation and continuous introduction of small plastics called; micro-plastics is a serious danger to the health of the global community. We all must unite to end plastic pollution.

World Cleanup Day is an annual global social action program aimed at combating the global solid waste problem, including the problem of marine debris. World Cleanup Day is held on the 3rd Saturday of September annually. It is celebrated with litter cleanup and waste mapping activities spanning every time zone and raising awareness of the mismanaged waste crisis by mobilizing all spheres of society to participate in cleanup actions.