The Centre for Global Eco-Innovation University of Benin (CGE-Nigeria) last Sunday organised a RECIRCULATE Stakeholders Engagement for Secondary School students on the many benefits of wastes using the anaerobic digestion (AD) technology.

The event held in Benin with the theme: “Stimulating the Interest of Young Africans in Sustainable Waste Management Practices” and declared open by the Principal Investigator, UNIBEN RECIRCULATE Project and CGE-Nigeria Director, Professor Lawrence Ikechukwu Ezemonye was quite an engaging one declared by the participants.

Professor Christopher Emokaro, representing Prof Ezemonye informed participants that the workshop was organised to pass on a generational legacy to secondary school students to change the narrative of how waste is managed.

Ezemonye mentioned that in many parts of the world, energy is being generated while food production is being boosted from waste using the anaerobic digestion technology, adding that the end product of the AD process is gas which has been proven to be pure and devoid of harmful substances is used as organic fertilizer.

He explained that the processes demonstrated proof that a lot could be achieved from wastes generated from schools and homes.

Presentations from resource persons including, Dr. (Mrs) Ifeyinwa Obuekwe, a Microbiologist, who spoke on “Opportunities and Challenges for Anaerobic Digestion in Africa: Feedstock and Digestate Perspectives.”

She explained that the AD process in simple terms is the breakdown of organic materials by microorganisms without the presence of oxygen to produce two important products: biogas (a source of energy) and digestate (an inorganic fertilizer).

According to her, the process had been embraced by many countries because it is a green technology process which is cost effective with high energy recovery and low environmental impact adding that the benefits that are inherent in the AD process include circular economy, soil structure stabilization, increased nutrient availability for plants, improved crop production and sustainable agriculture.

Also, Dr. Andrew Amenaghawon, a Chemical Engineer, in his presentation titled “Waste Management in the Modern Era: Shifting our Thinking Paradigms”, demonstrated to participants different modern waste management techniques that some countries adopted in order to recover waste, and also to avoid practices that could impact negatively on the environment.

He added that there is an urgent need for Nigerians to embrace new strategies of waste management for the country to achieve many of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and also charged participants to change their perception of waste as something unwanted or unusable.

At the Site, Dr. Mike Ajieh, an AD Engineer and member of the UNIBEN RECIRCULATE Team, took participants on a guided tour to the ACTUATE Anaerobic digester Site located a few meters from the venue of the workshop.