The Youths, are the leaders of tomorrow. Indeed, true to this vision, some of the youth’s roles and responsibilities have already began. The Youths of Zimbabwe are awake and smelling the coffee by taking accountability and responsibility to harness waste into resources.
Mishandled waste is a public health risk and an environmental hazard. Urgently, solid waste is significantly driving climate change through methane emissions from landfills. Everyone has a right to a clean and healthy environment as embraced by the Constitution of Zimbabwe. To fulfil this objective, the youths in Zimbabwe are designing and bringing into life, mechanisms which yield value and resources out of waste materials.
The youths of Zimbabwe are harnessing waste by venturing into waste collection services from households and corporates, focusing on garbage and recyclables. The waste collection enterprises are bridging the gap between waste generators and recycling companies to promote maximum resource efficiency. For example; instead of disposing-off plastic waste, the youths are collecting and transferring it to recycling companies. Clean and renewable energy is another product being harnessed out of waste by the youth. They are using bio-digesters to produce biogas out of bio-degradable waste collected from our communities. We also see that food security is being promoted through cultivating mushroom out of agricultural waste.
The goal of the youth is to have zero waste reaching our landfills in order to conserve our Mother Earth. On the other side, the goal is creating jobs and generating income, moving business-as-usual towards green jobs and green economies. Therefore, closing the unemployment gap that Zimbabwe is experiencing as every developing nation in Africa.
Based on the perspective of the youths in Zimbabwe, waste is no longer a nuisance. Rather it is a resource and an opportunity to improve their standards of living and transform economies while tackling waste related challenges. The youths are deriving innovative solutions that address waste management and climate change in Zimbabwe and its broader ecosystem.
Clean-up campaigns and raising awareness on sustainable waste management practices within communities and societies is another talk being walked by the youth. The act is transforming households and organisations to separate waste at source, facilitating the reduction, re-use and recycling of waste.
