HOW FAYOSE LITTERED ADO-EKITI METROPOLIS AND THE ENVIRON…
The Recycling plant was moribund….
Under Fayose, the Ekiti State government did not attach much importance to the plastic waste recycling plant located inside the state’s main dumpsite at Ilokun village.
It is under the supervision of Ekiti State Waste Management Agency, but the plant is not on the priority list of the state government.
Throughout the Fayose tenure, there was no budgetary allocation to run it efficiently.
Rather, the plant survives on a pittance from the annual budget.
The Director of Operations at the agency, Osalusi Ayoola who oversees the operation of the plant told the ICIR that the state government has no special budget for the plant. Hence, the plant runs only whenever there is a little fund to buy diesel to power the generator set.
The machine has the capacity to produce three tons (3000kg) of plastic pellets per week which translates to about 12000kg in a month.
The National grid was recently extended to Ilokun area, but the plant is not connected. Presently, only the crusher, a machine that crushes plastic waste, works at the plant because the main recycling machine has broken down over a year ago, the ICIR gathered. The pumping machine that supplies water for washing of plastic waste broke down even earlier.
“There are months that we don’t work,” said Olu Ajayi, the operator of the plant.
Pet bottles take over everywhere in Ado-Ekiti.
At the current price per kilogram of pellets which is N150 − the recycling plant can generate as much as N1.8million in a month and N21.6million in a year if well managed according to the operator. Ajayi confirmed that 50 per cent of solid waste generated in the state is plastic waste; he, however, revealed that the plant works only when there is diesel to power the generator.
Scavengers who pick plastic waste from the dumpsite were paid N15,000 by the state government in the beginning. Suberu Umar who had worked there as an operator since 2012 confirmed this. The pay, he lamented, has since been slashed to N10,000.
Ekiti State government under then governor Ayodele Fayose was already considering selling the plant to a private investor according to Ayoola.
Extracted from
http://www.abiodunborisade.com/2018/11/15/investigation-fgs-n392m-waste-recycling-plants-in-osun-ekiti-kaduna-lie-in-ruins-by-yekeen-akinwale/