for 50 years, mankind has been dominated by a realm of perpetual convenience, as this versatile material reserved a permanent home inside our hearts and minds. yet little did we know — while society was marveling at its sheer durability — that each micro-particle would soon become its own time-bomb across every crevice of the globe.

looking translucently flawless on the outside, the deep dive under plastic’s surface tells a whole different story. the history of plastic begins with the origin of crude oil, becoming plasticized and shaped into products, before utilization, and periodically directed to recycling. this is where, due to economic inefficiency, plastic instability, and a rise in single-use goods, less than 5% of u.s. plastics wind up here, even if placed in recycling bins.

for those recycled, new chemicals are introduced in this universal mixing of products, as plastics’ permeability enables pharmaceuticals, pesticides, and numerous chemicals to be added. across the globe, the un environment programme reports the association of over 13,000 chemicals with plastic products, of which 7,000 are potentially harmful substances, and 3,200 of those substances carry one or more harmful properties. under this surface, plastic conceals multi-layered toxicity, slowly leaching out of even the smallest particle upon breaking down.

between arctic sea ice riddled as a sink for microplastic concentrations, increasing pfas chemicals in polar bear livers, mountains of plastic fast-fashion clothing in chile’s deserts, mosquito-infested plastic-clogged waterways in uganda, and the over 8 million tons of plastic deposited from land to the ocean yearly, these microplastics travel by the wind, land, and sea to coat the globe. most are undetectable by the naked eye, seamlessly blended as a foreigner in our natural world, infiltrating our bodies without obstruction.

once inside, the smallest microplastics — nanoplastics — have a mysterious way of slipping past bodily defenses, spreading chemicals, and often claiming indefinite residence inside organs. pfas and plastic particles are presumably in every person, present in the lungs, brain, kidneys, blood, placenta, liver, and testicles, causing cancers, hormonal imbalances, infertility, and adhd, among many other health issues. the larger the plastic, the more impassable it becomes, making it harder for the body to excrete it. this proved true for a whale on the philippines’ coast, washed ashore deceased with 88 pounds of plastic inside.

this harrowing reality, caused by something so ubiquitous, is what threatens every living being on this planet. from fruits and vegetables, to cotton plants and maple trees, to wild salmon and livestock, plastic is not only a perceived everyday necessity, but woven into each fiber of our very existence. to open this window of truth behind this inanimate material, we must take a first-hand look at its journey. continue reading below.

what am i? that is the universal question circling my mindless presence while being stretched, heated, and morphed into a creation entirely new. polished, perfect, thousands of polymers intertwined, just waiting for their capacity to be tested.

significance is a new concept, yet it feels like an old friend. it is easy to get drowned out in this warehouse among millions of my clones, rolled up in tightly wound bales, loaded into trucks, and distributed like a web across the globe. yet somehow, in my short life, i feel my significance measured in dependence. someone is waiting for me.

my voyage ships me to a familiar place. a dark warehouse acts as the separation between our storage and the stimulating world. hands unbox me into a grocery store, becoming stationed on two metal rods. children, scanners, and blinding lights take up the space. people file past — dutifully pushing their carriages — as i am newly unsealed, stuffed with two small items, and placed alongside my counterparts.

carried out, handles stretching, my finality and purpose are solidified in an instant. dependence by humanity constituting only a negligible moment of my existence. the magic period of my creation has been reduced to myself in tatters. whisked by the breeze from the individual’s hand, i get caught in a tree. dangling, before my memory is swept away in the wind.

i am nearly torn in two by the time someone rescues me from the roadside, drops me in a blue bin, which lands me in a truck surrounded by multitudes of soiled plastic. chemicals, medicine, fertilizers, and spoiled milk aromas swirl. appreciation floods while witnessing other plastics’ fate, but this prompts the realization of how little i was utilized. a new question forms in my inanimate presence.

why was i made?

plastic. everywhere… plastic. i begin to realize my existence and my reason in this odorous truck.

we’re heading back to a factory.
it is the only sensible purpose behind this confinement, soon leading to light. loaded on conveyors, loosely sorted, while the accumulation of products’ chemicals permeates my surface. even the sanitization does not remove their foreign presence. the air fills with micro-particles as my worn surface is shredded, melted, and remade. tainted, manipulated, thousands of polymers intertwined, just waiting for their breaking point.

i survive the next years of over-stimulation and tattering, before landing in a cold watershed, where a piece of myself breaks off in the current.

minuscule enough to evade obstacles, the liquid feels like preservation as much as a trap. i feel myself diminishing as salt particles surround me. its harsh touch holds no effect in corroding my already contaminated being.

plankton. coral. stingray. sea ice. the current carries me across new stimuli, new biodiversity, and new environments in which i am embedded. my predetermined purpose relinquished, now ebbing and flowing from fish gills, whale baleen, and among the shrimp in this endless new home. presumably forgotten, slowly leaching chemicals into the serene abyss. permanence is now an unargued notion, as a final fish—a salmon—innocently engulfs me. i meld into its muscle walls, which soon become frigid and hard on ice.

i am small. i am insignificant. all it took was the transition from the fork to the mouth, and down into the stomach, before becoming lodged in a human’s liver. the species that morphed me into creation, now to never be rid of my presence. this is where i will remain, along with thousands of my friends, for a time i do not know how to measure.

i suppose it will be until something dislodges me. i never thought this would be the end of my journey, with so much left to see, so much life left to touch.

maybe my other pieces made it farther. but as insignificant as i feel, somehow this seems monumental. i am only one out of billions.

they are out there, circling the globe, just waiting to invisibly settle. settle on the bottom of the ocean floor. settle in someone’s lungs. settle in the roots of a coffee plant in africa.

but somehow i feel discontented. i know my presence here isn’t wanted, and i will be causing harm for the rest of my existence. living forever, just waiting to see where i will land next.

this video is an investigation into the relationship between art, science, and the environment, aiming to emphasize the importance of using art to convey science, particularly in the environmental sciences. this story is told through an interview with bonnie monteleone, co-founder of the plastic ocean project, a non-profit focused on the plastic pollution crisis based in wilmington, north carolina.

their mission is based on three pillars: scientific research, artistic storytelling, and collaborative solutions. monteleone, an artist at heart, created the traveling art exhibit “what goes around, comes around”, a mural made of plastic waste collected from the ocean in the shape of “the great wave of kanagawa” by katsushika hokusai.

monteleone is an expert in merging the arts and sciences in environmental storytelling and emphasizes the importance of using art to convey science, “it’s this little dance that we’re constantly doing, just so hungry to share, to communicate with one another. and that’s where, when i started this conversation the science was locked up, and helping people understand how horrible we were treating the ocean because we weren’t communicating.”

on a sunny summer morning in 2024, i walked along costa rica’s drake bay, my feet sinking into the sand as crabs skittered away, disappearing into burrows below the wet sand. after a three-day storm, wind and waves had tossed not only seaweed and driftwood along the beach, but also flip-flops, dented metal tins, and other pieces of trash onto the shore.

as i scanned the shoreline, helping clean the beach of trash, something caught my eye. i picked up what at first glance looked like just another ordinary plastic bottle, but upon closer inspection, i noticed that the label was in a language totally foreign to costa rica’s predominant spanish. judging by the label, this was a chinese water bottle.

as i examined the bottle, i puzzled over the journey that brought it to costa rica. what did its journey to this beach look like? how long has it drifted through the ocean? finding this chinese bottle 9,000 miles away on a distant central american shore, inspired me to take my own journey to learn more about how trash moves through the oceans and what science can tell us about how long, how far trash travels through the ocean, and how it rides currents across and through the oceans.

an interconnected system

according to the united nations, an estimated 60 to 90% of the trash that litter shorelines, the ocean’s surface, and the seafloor is plastic. eighty percent of this plastic waste comes from land-based sources, with the remaining 20% coming from marine-based sources primarily trash from fishing vessels.

“ocean currents are part of the machinery, the engine that gives us the climate we have… so when we tinker with the atmosphere through greenhouse gas and aerosols, we bring about a whole chain of reactions that are going to change the wind field that’s driving the currents,” said eddy carmack, ph.d., senior research scientist emeritus and head of the drift bottle project, a research project that uses volunteers to throw bottles with identifiable information inside into the ocean to track ocean currents.

ocean currents are everywhere, from the arctic to the five gyres located in the north pacific, south pacific, north and south atlantic, and indian ocean. a gyre is a large system of ocean currents that move circularly. they are continuous and are driven by winds, tides, and water densities that are ever-changing throughout each year.

“it was thought that the arctic ocean was not a player in the game. it was way up north and all the heat exchanges were going on in the equatorial zone,” carmack said. but according to researcher rebecca woodgate, this small ocean that covers only 2% of the global ocean surface area is key in regulating deep ocean currents, also known as thermohaline circulation, all over the world.

“though she be little, she be fierce,” said carmack quoting “a midsummer night’s dream” when referring to this ocean. the global ocean conveyor belt, consisting of both deep and surface currents circulates the earth on a one-thousand-year period, plays a major role in how our oceans and wind function. 

plastic, plastic, everywhere

in the 1950s, plastic became a craving for consumers around the world because of its versatility and affordability. as each individual throws out their bottle, a styrofoam cup of coffee, or a plastic packet, the debris often eventually flows out to the ocean like on a conveyer belt. it then slowly breaks down into smaller fragments and often becomes ingested by marine life for the remainder of its life cycle.

now add in the phenomenon of ocean currents, and the moment plastics reach the ocean, they can hitch a ride on ocean currents worldwide. the large gyre across the globe can sweep in and collect loose trash from nonpoint sources. these five gyres are sometimes assumed to hold floating islands of trash, made up of large pieces of debris such as tires, fishing ropes, shoes, and more. contrary to popular belief however, oceanographer captain charles moore states that they are more like soups of confetti-sized trash.

a 2018 study from the nature journal presented that at least 79,000 tonnes of ocean debris are within an area three times the size of france – that’s 617,763 miles of trash.

although plastic, at its core, pollutes our waters, seeing a floating rubber ducky may seem ordinary. yet, bowling balls, toilets, and scooters have been found by beach cleanup volunteers with sarah weller, senior manager of international coastal cleanup at ocean conservancy.

“fun things that people have found are cash or suitcases,” weller said. over decades, these and millions of bizarre objects of all materials and sizes, have found their way into the ocean where currents sweep them away to gyres or to other countries. a shipping accident known as “the great lego spill of 1997” released nearly 5 million nautically shaped legos off the coast of cornwall, england that still appear throughout the english channel, celtic sea, and north sea today.

using trash to track ocean currents

sometimes identifiable pieces of ocean trash can serve as useful pinpoints to help oceanographers study ocean currents. for example, shigeru fujieda, ph.d., a professor and researcher at kagoshima university in japan, proposed that cigarette lighters can also aid in tracking ocean currents.

when found by someone, each lighter has printed information about the sale address or phone number of the country of origin. contact information has also been key in carmack’s the drift bottle project where students and volunteers threw empty watertight glass bottles with contact information of the research project from up and down the west coast of the americas from alaska down to the panama canal, among some other locations.

a plethora of bottles have been dropped off in these areas and while many are still oceangoing, 1 in every 25 bottles have been recovered in places like brazil, norway, and on kodiak island, alaska.

like this project, my father, stephen carman was about 50 miles out of the coast of cape hatteras in north carolina when he threw a message in a bottle into the gulf stream. about 5 months and 650 miles later, the same bottle was mailed back by a prisoner cleaning the beaches of bermuda.

what can be done?

“i kind of describe (ocean debris) more as like, the more you peel back the layers of it, the more complex it becomes. because you think, ‘why don’t we just go and clean it all up?'” weller said. due to the scale of the problem and the complexity of ocean currents, we can’t fully rid our oceans of trash. but participating in beach cleanups in a community does bring about positive changes. you may even come across a lego or personal note.

seventy percent of earth’s surface  hasn’t been fully mapped out yet meaning there is likely more garbage in those areas. approximately 33 billion pounds of plastic enter our oceans each year, and it’s expected to triple by 2040.

the trash free seas alliance, save our seas 2.0 act, and the trash free waters program are just three organizational and governmental initiatives that support this worldwide issue. the drift bottle project, other people’s attempts at it, and the accidental spills of objects bring us one step closer to understanding the world’s currents and why it’s distressing to find a plastic bottle with an asian brand on it on the shores of costa rica. when coming across trash on a beach, many may not consider its nautical path, but each unsolicited piece of debris like this bottle has a story of where it came from like ours.

this video is all about local action individuals can take against the litter problem in the foggy bottom neighborhood of washington, d.c. in 2022, residents of d.c. on average produced 5.87 lbs. of waste per person per day, much of which can often end up on the ground. annually, this can amount to well over 2000 lbs. of individual waste production.

this video aims to teach viewers about the issue at hand by adding visual elements that the audience can engage with, understand, and motivate other citizens to do their part – not just in d.c. but around the world!

but along with the fun and celebrations of the holiday, comes a lot of waste. thus, halloween is a great time to assess your waste production. 

there are many ways to reduce your consumption levels surrounding the spooky holiday, including trading old costumes with friends, making your halloween decorations out of repurposed materials, and diying your halloween costumes. check out this fun and informative video published on planet forward last year about the importance of sustainable halloween costumes. 

however, one area that we still find to be a bit of a sustainability challenge is halloween candy wrappers. 

the issue of candy wrappers

candy and snacks pose a big problem due to the single-use plastic that comes with the treats. on average, americans buy more than 600 million pounds (based on recent sales numbers) of candy per halloween season. this candy produces a massive amount of discarded plastic packaging and individual candy wrappers. 

multiple organizations have created candy wrapper recycling programs to help mitigate this problem.

loggerhead marinelife center ran a nationwide unwrap the waves program to collect candy wrappers and recycle them, to prevent them from entering our oceans. for the three years this program ran, unwrap the waves recycled more than 450,000 candy wrappers.

similarly, rubicon created its trash to treasure program in 2019 to distribute recycling boxes during the halloween season to businesses, schools, and community organizations, in which people were encouraged to bring their candy wrappers. once filled, the candy wrapper-filled boxes were sent back to rubicon to be cleaned, sorted, and turned into renewed plastic to be used once more. 

in its five years of operation, trash to treasure saw great success, expanding to schools and organizations in every state of the country and valentine’s day season, in addition to halloween.

despite this apparent success of the program, rubicon announced that it would be pausing trash to treasure for the 2024 halloween season.

with rubicon’s program also suspended, there isn’t an equivalent free candy wrapper recycling program.

terracycle sells candy and snack wrapper recycling boxes. however, with a small recycling box at $105, this price range is unfeasible for most individuals.

so what’s the solution to the candy wrapper conundrum?

short answer: it’s not so easy

while consumers can do their best to opt for buying halloween candy with the least amount of plastic packaging, halloween candy exists on the short list of foods that need some sort of individual packaging. 

trick-or-treating etiquette necessitates that candy given out is pre-wrapped with seals and closings intact. this is so parents can ensure that the candy their children are given is safe to eat. thus, we cannot get rid of candy wrappers entirely. 

candy corporations should do their part

we should encourage candy corporations, such as hershey, nestle, and mars, to produce our favorite candies with compostable or recyclable packaging.

additionally, candy corporations themselves should run large-scale candy wrapper recycling programs. taking from the structure of trash to treasure, these corporations should give schools, businesses, and organizations recycling boxes, free of charge, to collect candy wrappers and reuse for the production of future candy. 

mars has done this on a microscopic scale. in 2022, the candy corporation that makes snickers and m&ms, partnered with rubicon to distribute 17,400 candy waste collection bags to u.s. consumers. people were able to fill the bags with candy wrappers and mail them back to a special recycler, g2 revolution, in illinois. 

if all 17,400 bags were mailed back full, mars would have recycled 2 tons of recycled wrappers, which is only a fraction of the total amount of candy wrappers discarded every halloween season. 

better recycling infrastructure

even if more candy corporations ran candy wrapper recycling programs, there still exists the issue of a lack of proper infrastructure to recycle candy wrappers.

candy wrappers and plastic wrappers, in general, pose a difficult challenge for recycling because they are often made of mixed materials, such as plastic and foil. these different materials must be separated during recycling, which adds time and energy to the recycling process. 

additionally, candy wrappers tend to be thin and flimsy, which allows them to easily bypass recycling sorting machines.

candy wrappers must be thoroughly cleaned of the food waste prior to being recycled and the mix of colors on candy wrappers often produces an unappealing brown color when recycled into new materials.

these difficulties cause recycling candy wrappers to be costly and they produce such low-grade plastic that the value of the new plastic doesn’t meet the value of the recycling process. which, in turn, means candy corporations are not inclined to commit to this process. 

better, more efficient recycling infrastructure must be invented to reduce the cost of candy wrapper recycling and make it more profitable for the organizations that engage with this process.

looking to the future

hershey has stated that it is committed to having 100% of their plastic packaging be recyclable, reusable, or compostable by 2030.

additionally, mars has invested hundreds of millions of dollars to redesign 12,000 packaging components to be reusable, recyclable, or compostable.

this is a large feat to surmount, and we will all be watching to see if the first and fourth-largest candy corporations by sales, respectively, can do what it takes to minimize candy wrapper waste and advocate for more sustainable practices, especially with seasonal candy. 

with that, have a safe and festive halloween!

denmark is one of the best recycling nations in the world, thanks to an extensive waste management system. waste in denmark is sorted into various categories, such as plastics, metals, glass, food waste, cardboard and more. this kind of waste sorting happens at both a household level, where residents sort their small, everyday items, and at a larger, citywide level, where residents and companies drop off their sorted waste at recycling stations. i visited a recycling center in copenhagen to get a sense of what kinds of strategies are implemented to create such an effective waste management system.

“leading the charge,” the theme of an april 10 kellogg climate conference at northwestern university, brought together an all-stars cast including leaders from coca-cola, gm energy, start-ups, academics and conservation groups to redefine business strategy in a changing climate.

the mission? counter climate change and find new profit pipelines there as well.

a standing-room-only crowd of business executives, experts, and students explored company examples of innovative and cost-effective climate change mitigation at the all-day conference sponsored by the kellogg school of management’s energy and sustainability club and the trienens institute for sustainability and energy at northwestern.  

meghan busse, associate professor of strategy at the kellogg school of management kicked off the conference with what she called, “a greenhouse emissions breakdown,” in other words, a lively lowdown on the challenges ahead.

according to busse, in the u.s, one-fourth of gas emissions come from electricity generation, one-fourth from transportation, one-fourth from industrial processes, and one-fourth covering both agriculture and buildings. the conference program covered all these sectors and how each one is providing new solutions and innovative technology to decrease emissions.

“our goal of the day is to leave you all feeling armed to become climate capable leaders where you are willing to ask questions and start thinking about no matter what your job is, how does climate plan into my strategy?” said busse.

the incentive to act for companies is linked to the impact on their pockets. climate change is expected to cost u.s. businesses over $1.3 trillion in the next three years. such high stakes have pushed industries around the world to seek massive technological and business transformations. but experts say that refusing to invest is climate solutions will cost even more in losses due to rising costs, resource uncertainties, extreme weather damage, and other factors.

speakers at kellogg conference emphasize solutions

keynote speakers included business leaders across the board to share the specifics their companies have implemented to prioritize sustainability as a core component of strategic decision-making. coca-cola is the number one plastic polluter in the world, according to coke’s executive vp bea perez who took center stage her talk on “navigating sustainability and profitability.” she focused on the importance of accountability, transparency and support from top corporate leaders for a company to move toward sustainability. she asked the audience to envision the size of 120,000 olympic size swimming pools, the pyramid of giza and every single volcano in the world to show the massive amounts of waste that the coca-cola company generates. she emphasized solutions.

businesses and consumers should examine a company’s business and sustainability reports to see if sustainability strategy is embedded into the finances of the company, she said. without that commitment, the measures are irrelevant, said perez, global chief communication, sustainability and strategic partnerships officer at coca-cola.

according to the coca-cola company’s 2022 business & sustainability report, the company aims to “make 100% of our packaging recyclable globally by 2025— and use at least 50% recycled material in our packaging by 2030.” perez explained how water, packaging, and climate goals are interconnected and that by creating a circular economy for packaging, they can lower their carbon footprint.

in their 2022 business & sustainability report, coke claimed that 90% of its packaging is recyclable, 15% of plastic bottles made with polyethylene terephthalate (pet) are recycled, and that 61% of packaging (is) collected for recycling. coke’s innovation of a 100% plant-based bottle prototype is a key component to helping them achieve their sustainability goals. “if you don’t have strong communities, you can’t have strong businesses,” said perez.

infrastructure challenges

at the scaling the energy transition panel, key challenges focused on infrastructure development. shashank sane, a kellogg alum, and evp at transmission invenergy, said that supply chain delays are making it challenging for businesses to amplify the grid system. projects may take up to a decade from supply chain to completion and a major challenge that business owners face is the lack of policy and government support for funding.

at a global scale this sets the u.s behind. for comparison, germany which backed up by government policy, is capable of placing massive national orders for supplies, while business owners in the u.s are limited by their procurement resources. consequently, the lack of infrastructure affects other sectors like the transportation sector.

companies such as nexteramobility which focuses on developing, constructing, and operating power projects to produce electricity are restricted in mass capacity by the infrastructure of grid placements. however, even with the use of a massive electric plant to compensate for fuel, yann kulp, director business development, fleet electrification advisory, argued that having one major source of emissions is better than having millions of sources of emissions, making the carbon capture in one place more manageable.

insight into regenerative farming

the panel seeds of change: cultivating a sustainable future in food and agriculture introduced ancient processes and cutting-edge initiatives as change-makers. sonali lamba, co-founder and executive director of the soil inventory project, brought to light how regenerative farming practices could be a greater part of the solution for fighting climate change and restoring our soils through farming.

regenerative farming, as lamba explained, roots back to indigenous practices. this kind of farming focuses on supporting local farmers and even funding their businesses to incentivize healthier farming practices that avoid pesticides, other chemical and erosion-causing practices that harm both earth and our health.

“why not pay people to do things the right way,” said meera bhat, global director of equitable conservation for the nature conservancy.

this year’s kellogg climate conference brought together an audience of about 300 business leaders and mba students, each with different perspectives on how to decrease their carbon footprint in their business sector. regardless of their business strategy, attendees shared kellogg’s mission that day to educate, strategize and mobilize, for the sake of change.

doris alvarez is a graduate student at northwestern university’s medill school of journalism. 

ensuring an effective waste management strategy is not only very important for community development, but is also a vital component of supporting climate action. unfortunately, indiscriminate disposal of wastes is a challenge that exists across different classes and regions of nigeria. 

according to the nigerian federal government’s 2020 nigerian national waste management policy, “nigeria produces a large volume of solid wastes out of which less than 20% is collected through a formal system.”

even in nigerian academic institutions, this issue is prevalent. as a fresh masters student in obafemi awolowo university (oau) in 2015, i realized that despite my school’s green reputation and beautiful exterior, illegal waste disposal was still a problem on campus.  

so in 2016, while serving as the president of my university’s environmental control and management student association (ecomsa), i teamed up with lagos-based african clean up initiative (formerly known as passion house) and sustyvibes to launch the oau campus cleanup. 

with the help of nigeria’s national environmental standard and regulation agency (nesrea) and several other clubs on campus, we collected approximately 100 bags of solid wastes which were channeled into appropriate receptacles. after this event, the participating organizations and individuals started organizing weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly cleanup exercises within the school.

one of the attendees at the oau campus cleanup event was mayokun iyaomolere, who would later go on to form his own organization, the plogging nigeria club. 

plogging is a concept created by erik ahlstrom, an activist from sweden who combined his love for hiking and running, with the practice of picking up litter. iyaomolere’s organization is functional across 18 university campuses in nigeria with 1,600 members who have collectively picked more than 30 tons of waste since the program’s founding in 2018. 

i caught up with iyaomolere to discuss the progress of his club and his experience with sustainable waste management on nigerian school campuses. this conversation appears below, edited for length and clarity.

wa: what does ‘sustainable waste management’ mean to you?

mi: i would describe sustainable waste management as a holistic set of policies, infrastructure and behaviors that contribute to reduced use of items, proper disposal of wastes, finding afterlife for some wastes and carefully ensuring all final wastes do not end up polluting the environment.

wa: did you participate in the oau campus cleanup 2016?

mi: yes, i participated in the cleanup.

it was one of my first major volunteering experiences. i enjoyed the company of colleagues from academia and (others who) i looked up to in the environment industry in nigeria.

wa: what did you gain from the experience? 

mi: i think it was a landmark campus cleanup event that set the pace for hundreds, if not thousands of events that had happened after it.

i met new people and consolidated on existing relationships. something about doing impactful work together makes me connect better with people.

i also participated in publicity for the event… this would become a skill for me as i grew into the environment space in nigeria.

wa: what inspired you to starting plogging nigeria club?

mi: beating plastic pollution with young people. that really was the initial drive as conversations around plastic pollution became more topical.

after we started plogging nigeria on the oau campus in june 2018, we hosted another massive cleanup at the university in august 2018. the network i built and competencies i developed during the 2016 cleanup really came in handy and helped set plogging nigeria on an ascending trajectory.

wa: what other programs or projects does plogging nigeria hold to engage the youth and educate the public on waste management?

mi: today, plogging nigeria continues evolving. we’ve done quite a lot, and will be doing even more. what we started as just jogging and picking up litter has metamorphosed into one of the most consistent and present environmental organizations in nigeria and indeed, africa. 

we have established about 30 subsidiary campus and community clubs since june 2018 when we started in oau. we have over 1,600 volunteers presently. with these clubs, we’ve had over 600 plogging episodes. 

we run an experiential environmental education school called the green switch academy. at the academy, we train people on the basics of environmental sustainability, solid waste management, climate change and the sustainable development goals amongst other things. we have organized 26 cohorts of the academy, with the latest being in february 2024. we have trained exactly 1,659 persons from over 20 countries at the academy.

another major project for us is ploggathon, a fusion of the words, “plogging” and “marathon.” we led more than 200 people to run a 10km distance in the capital city of nigeria, competitively cleaning wastes along the way. 

we also run these virtual end of year campaigns where we try to educate people on living sustainably during the yuletide period. we’ve done that five years in a row now and have partnered with over 80 organizations for this campaign alone. we have reached millions of virtual audiences through it.

these are some of the things we have done and will build on. generally, we try to employ plogging, cleanups, arts, circularity, research, and development as advocacy tools for environmental and climate education.

wa: what’s the future of waste management in nigeria and the role of young people?

mi: the future of waste management in nigeria! there’s still a lot of work to be done really. we need to put in proper policies and infrastructure that will cause and enforce a change in our waste management behavior in nigeria.

at plogging nigeria, we’ve learned from our work that there’s a dire need for policies, backed up with infrastructure, and stringent enforcement systems. advocacy is not enough. when one learns not to throw wastes indiscriminately away, they need to have a bin close by to dump the wastes. 

recycling is gaining ground around the country, but is only one part of it. we need better waste disposal and collection systems, landfill management, and should begin to really explore the potentials of generating energy from wastes. there’s a whole lot really, and there’s a wide open sky of opportunities in the future of waste management in nigeria. young people have started taking leadership of the waste management space in the country and i believe it will continue to remain so as we aim to rid nigeria of every form of dirt.

looking ahead

as the movement toward sustainable waste management continues to grow across nigerian campuses, it is imperative for school management to support environmental clubs situated within their schools and extend collaborations to governmental agencies to further solidify effectiveness in the waste management sector of the communities and of the country at large. 

activists across the campuses are beginning to voluntarily train and educate young people in elementary and secondary schools, this already helps the new generation to be aware of the need for waste management as part of the measures for community development. thus, this movement of young people shall play a huge role toward sustainable management of wastes.

envision this – rain patters on a street surface, accumulating until it pours across the concrete sweeping along with the howling winds. below the surface, a myriad of copper, clay, and wooden pipes grapple with the flash flood – one that would eventually make it to the surface.

on september 1, 2021, a scene quite like this played out as the remnants of hurricane ida surged over the city of newark. as the intensity of rain increased, the swollen passaic river burst, hauling its contents across the grounds of the newark liberty international airport, school buildings, and dozens of streets.

the aftermath of the storm left the city of newark crippled, with billions of dollars in damages, 25-30 people dead across the state, and 430 stranded residents in need of rescue from their cars or from some kind of transportation.

two years after this devastation, has the city fortified itself against potential storms? according to nicole miller, a member of newark environmental commission, co-chair of newark dig (doing infrastructure green), and co-chair of the jersey water works steering committee, “not yet.”

newark is among the oldest cities in the united states. the passaic river flows through the city and goes into newark bay. the city’s proximity to waterways has made its waterfront an important transportation hub of the port of new york and new jersey.

while the city’s location offers opportunities for trade, it also makes newark more susceptible to flooding. “somewhat like 40% of the city is in a floodplain or a fema flood zone. and a good portion of the city is below sea level. new jersey has already experienced 1.5 feet of sea level rise since 1900, with up to 2 feet more expected by 2050,” miller said.

for the city, addressing the flooding issue is not only a matter of necessity but also a matter of time.

in newark’s ironbound neighborhood, floods are a regular occurrence. according to viravid na nagara, one of the leading researchers at the center for natural resources at the new jersey institute of technology, “the majority of newark uses a combined sewer system.” in this system, wastewater and stormwater from streets, roofs, and other surfaces flow through the same pipes and get treated in the newark bay treatment plant operated by passaic valley sewerage commission (pvsc).

the issue with this system, as nagara stated, was that when the volume of stormwater exceeds the capacity of the system in situations like a heavy rainstorm, the system can get overwhelmed and trigger something called, “combined sewer overflow.”

this occurs when, during heavy rainfall, a combined sewer system releases some of the untreated sewage and stormwater to nearby water bodies, such as rivers and streams through outfalls located throughout the system. this, however, is not always an efficient drainage system. in the event of a river overflow, the newly contaminated river water would pose a threat to public health. this risk is also present during blockages in the system which result in the back up of toxic human sewage and industrial into streets and homes.

putting aside the economic implications, flooding has both social and environmental repercussions. meghana parameswarappa jayalakshmamma, a final-year ph.d. candidate in environmental engineering at njit stated, “microplastics have been found in stormwater runoff. any storm events can cause these pollutants to be washed off from one region to the other region. based on rainfall intensity and duration, microplastics can be taken from highway, commercial, and residential areas.” jayalakshmamma also talked about the research conducted in 1972 that found that fish and other aquatic organisms were consuming microplastics – something that has remained unchanged with the current drainage systems.

the polluted water not only affects aquatic animals but humans alike. individuals who come in contact with the toxic water become sick and some lose their jobs due to their inability to work. in newark, the destruction of homes also displaced some residents. miller stated that many of newark’s residents are still suffering from the lingering effects of the floods.

through the difficulties, newark has proved itself to be a resilient city. albeit slowly, the city is working to implement different flood mitigation measures that incorporate green infrastructure. nagara is one of the individuals working on flood mitigation strategies in newark.

“it is important before implementing anything to have communication with the community and understand what they are expecting or need,” nagara said.

in tandem with the newark community, nagara is creating a map that people can use to get “perspective to which area needs green infrastructure to be built to mitigate flooding.” this map records the extent of flooding, depth of water, and speed of water.

with this map, nagara makes determination about the locations in which stormwater planters can be built.

these planters capture rainwater by featuring small gardens inside concrete, stone, or brick features. these would bring back biofiltration, improving water quality by retaining microplastics and other pollutants & allowing absorption of water by the land – a perfect example of “borrowing the approach from nature,” nagara stated.

newarkdig, a coalition of groups focused on stormwater management throughout newark, is also working on projects such as rain gardens. miller explains that the rain gardens will slow down the water that usually goes into the pipes unimpeded causing the intense flow of water in the system. in the process, some water could also be used on the plants. newarkdig is working alongside newark workforce development board to open up jobs for people in designing, implementing, and maintaining green infrastructure.

outside of organizations in the community, individuals of the community are just as vital in advancing newark in its fight against floods. the gi reformer team of newarkdig, according to miller, raises public awareness through presentations about combined sewer overflows, flooding, and involvement opportunities.

“the data is all pointing to the future” miller states, referring to data predicting the increasing sea levels and precipitation in the coming years.

“it’s not just about the numbers. it’s not just about the money. it’s really about what’s the cost of inaction?”

only 4% of plastics produced in sub-saharan africa are recycled.

but namé recycling in cameroon has a mission to promote a circular economy by giving a second life to plastic waste and reducing plastic pollution. at the same time, they hope to bring economic opportunities to the communities that they serve.

namé collects various kinds of plastics through a network of informal collectors and businesses in cameroon. they then turn much of that waste into large, fully recycled pallets that replace the need for wooden ones.