This webinar was organized in partnership with WasteAidUK
QUICK SUMMARY & QUOTES
MICHAEL WEBSTER & ZOE LENKIEWICZ, WasteAid UK
This awareness has really shifted; suddenly waste management is on front, as priority list
- WasteAid financial support came from funding but the money had to be ring-fenced and could not be used for the growth and development of the organization.
- Core and unrestricted funding is essential for the organization to grow.
We both had to learn so many additional skills
- There are several requirements to start up a business.
- One of them is to work in a team, because different skills are required, such as fundraising, subject matter or branding.
- A good set of advisers to offer guidance about possible needs or connections is also essential and so is creativity.
- Finding the customer and meeting the market is one of the key solutions to launch a business.
- Selling your business idea has to be directly correlated with what problem you’re solving to lead to potential customers.
We make mistakes along the way and that’s how you learn and improve’
- Two billion people live among their garbage without having anyone to collect them and they are to dump, burn or bury them.
- That is a public health problem and it has direct impacts on the level of waterborne disease, the level of air and the impact of marine pollution.
‘Our approach is one that empowers communities to deal with their own waste; our message is don’t wait for someone else, don’t wait for the government to come and sort your waste out; you can do it.’
- Waste is raw material and something is not truly recycled until it’s turned into something that people want.
- Organic waste is in abundance; therefore ways to deal with it are needed.
- In the UK there are 3000 companies waste management companies employing 70,000 people with an annual turnover of over 9 billion pounds.
Even poor people, if they can see that a service that you’re providing is actually improving their quality of life, then they’re still willing to pay a tiny amount towards that so there’s always a chance for cost recovery
- Collecting waste from poor communities and selling it afterwards is the role of the middleman.
- The waste industry is important for a material security energy, climate change, environmental protection and Public Health Association and that applies globally.
- Europe has grown a lot. The number of people working in wastes doubled to 2 million people and that was the result since the driver of policy, the landfill directive came in. That result to councils had to start separately collecting food waste for composting food, waste and paper
- Around the world, 15 to 20 million people are working in waste management in the informal waste sectors.
You are going to have to persuade people, that throwing their waste, burning it in their back yard or dumping it in open ground; it is not an option.