尼日利亚拉各斯垃圾回收再用项目

Nigeria’s Wecyclers Work for Reusable Future in Lagos 尼日利亚拉各斯垃圾回收再用项目

LAGOS—

The streets and lagoons¹ of Africa's largest city - Lagos, Nigeria - are often clogged³ with trash, almost none of which gets recycled. One company is trying to change that.

Adeyemi Okuwoga is on the hunt for trash. Neighbors bring out bags of plastic and aluminum⁴ waste. He weighs them and carts them off, free of charge.

Okuwoga works for Wecyclers, a company that picks up recyclables from poor neighborhoods like Ebute Metta in Lagos.

Wecyclers co-founder and CEO Bilikiss Adebiyi-Abiola says the city produces about 10,000 metric tons of trash daily.

“So all those trash, the black bags, the pure water sachets that clog² the drains, everything can be recycled. It’s a raw material for people that have factories. So our goal is to collect all those materials as cheaply as possible on a large scale and then give them to people that can use them," said Adebiyi-Abiola.

At their nearby depot⁵, Wecyclers sort and process their haul. They then sell off their recyclables to firms that re-use them. The start-up has yet to turn a profit, but plans to press on and expand to also compost organic waste.

The company awards residents points based on the weight of what they contribute. People can cash points in for gifts including plastic bowls, generators⁶ and bicycles.

Ebute Metta resident O.O. Oladapo says her neighborhood is cleaner.

“Now that these people are working, I think they make Lagos clean, you understand because Lagos is a dirty place, most especially these cans, pure water [bags] and the plastic," said Oladapo.

So far, Wecyclers only works in two neighborhoods in this massive city, processing about 40 to 50 metric tons of recyclables each month. That's not even one percent of the city’s daily waste.

1 lagoons   

n.污水池( lagoon的名词复数 )；潟湖；（大湖或江河附近的）小而浅的淡水湖；温泉形成的池塘

参考例句：

• The Islands are by shallow crystal clear lagoons enclosed by coral reefs. 该群岛包围由珊瑚礁封闭的浅水清澈泻湖。 来自互联网
• It is deposited in low-energy environments in lakes, estuaries and lagoons. 它沉淀于湖泊、河口和礁湖的低能量环境中，也可于沉淀于深海环境。 来自互联网

2 clog   

vt.塞满，阻塞；n.[常pl.]木屐

参考例句：

• In cotton and wool processing,short length fibers may clog sewers.在棉毛生产中，短纤维可能堵塞下水管道。
• These streets often clog during the rush hour.这几条大街在交通高峰时间常常发生交通堵塞。

3 clogged   

（使）阻碍( clog的过去式和过去分词 )； 淤滞

参考例句：

• The narrow streets were clogged with traffic. 狭窄的街道上交通堵塞。
• The intake of gasoline was stopped by a clogged fuel line. 汽油的注入由于管道阻塞而停止了。

4 aluminum   

n.(aluminium)铝

参考例句：

• The aluminum sheets cannot be too much thicker than 0.04 inches.铝板厚度不能超过0.04英寸。
• During the launch phase,it would ride in a protective aluminum shell.在发射阶段，它盛在一只保护的铝壳里。

5 depot   

n.仓库，储藏处；公共汽车站；火车站

参考例句：

• The depot is only a few blocks from here.公共汽车站离这儿只有几个街区。
• They leased the building as a depot.他们租用这栋大楼作仓库。

6 generators   

n.发电机，发生器( generator的名词复数 )；电力公司

参考例句：

• The factory's emergency generators were used during the power cut. 工厂应急发电机在停电期间用上了。
• Power can be fed from wind generators into the electricity grid system. 电力可以从风力发电机流入输电网。 来自《简明英汉词典》