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By Eunice Emmanuel-Bagi.
The job of a Scavenger is highly challenging, he pushes a trolley under the scorching sun for hours searching for scrap metals, rummaging refuse dumps for rubber and empty drink cans to sell at the Scrap yard. Sometimes, he goes house to house to purchase junk that might be of value to Recyclers.
Yunusa Ibrahim is one of such Scavengers, trying to earn a living from scavenging for recyclable products. The 21 year old has worked as a scavenger for the past six years in Kogi State. Yunusa, originally from Kano State and raised among the Almajiri children of the North is not new to the life of struggling for the quintessential daily bread.
There are three Junk yards in Lokoja, namely; the Nataco Junkyard, the Ganaja Bridge Junk yard and the Zango-Daji Junk Yard. Yunusa lives in one out of the three scrap yards located in Lokoja, Kogi State. According to him, he makes as much as N5000 on the days when he is lucky enough to find valuable Scrap parts. On days when he is not so lucky, he makes a measly N1000 from which he takes care of his basic necessities.
With the recent influx of youths from the Northern part of Nigeria to the Middle Belt region, the number of Scavengers trying to earn a living from waste has drastically increased making the search for scrap materials even more competitive. Across dump sites and incinerators this young men can be seen searching for rubber, aluminum, and scrap metals which are then taken to Scrap yards to be valued for their worth.
These young men, like Yunusa have no formal education and can only communicate in Hausa language making communication with others an odious task. Yunusa hopes to someday get a Formal Education. “I want to go to school someday; I want to get a formal education so that I can become a Police Man. I want to speak English; I want to be able to express myself properly. I do not want to be a Scavenger forever, I want society to treat me with respect, and I want a better life” He said.
There are however, lots of people who generate revenue from Scrap, one of such persons is Mr. Peter Samuel a retiree. The former Staff of the Ajaokuta Steel Company who retired two years ago revealed to this reporter that he began what has become a thriving business as a way of generating an extra source of income.
Mr. Samuel sells used and condemned car parts per kilo to Agents. The Agents buy the parts for between N40, 000-N50, 000 per kilo. Mechanics could be seen flocking to the Junk yard to purchase car parts which are said to be cheaper than those in spare part shops.
The Ganaja Bridge Junk yard, like any organized facility is divided into various segments. The welding section is the first section seen upon entering the Junk yard. Welders could be seen transforming iron parts that were otherwise seen as useless into useful materials like window frames, iron rods for building, iron cast stoves for cooking among others. Next is the section for scrap materials such as used electrical equipment. The compressor from Fridges are removed and sold separately as they are said to be of high financial value.
The rubber which has the biggest work space in the Junk yard comprises of various categories of rubber waste. A large grinding machine for breaking rubber into commercial quantities is housed in one of the many shacks at the Junk yard. The process of sorting rubber before it is grinded is a stressful process that entails selecting rubber based on color similarities and texture before it is then grinded.
The various categories of rubber are sorted out based on their value, color and strength. After grinding, the soft rubber is then bagged and sold to Agents for N10, 000 per bag. The grinded Jerry cans are sold for N9, 000 per bag and the hard rubber which comprises of broken plastic chairs, GP Tanks and other strong plastic materials sell for about N20, 000 per bag.
The bottle section houses broken bottles that are sold to bottling companies such as the Nigerian Breweries, Guinness, Pepsi and other Nigerian Bottling companies. In the junk yard nothing is wasted, everything has financial value down to the smallest piece of plastic.
In another section of the junk yard, the “for sale’’ sign were placed on used vehicles. According to one of the sellers who spoke to this reporter “this is the cheapest place to buy a car’’. Just opposite the spot where used cars are sold is another section for scrap metals. In this section, the scrap metals are cut into smaller bits and similar parts and then bagged for sale.
According to Abdullahi, one of the Scavengers at the scrap yard, scrap metals are in high demand. “This one nah scrap, money dey inside well, well. You fit sell one kilo for N50, 000 or N40, 000 when market dey slow” he says in vernacular.
In the tour round the premises, a lot of young men were seen sleeping in various shacks. This reporter gathered that most of the Scavengers live in the Junk yard as they have no means of getting a decent accommodation.
Mr. Samuel who acted as our tour guide noted that the Junk yard contributes a lot to the State Economy as between 50 bags per day of rubber are grinded everyday and over 400 bags of rubber are sold to agents each week.
In another section, a mountain of compressed cans could be seen. The cans which are made of aluminum are of high commercial value. The compressed cans are sold per bag to Tomatoes puree processing industries as well as other companies who make household products such as kitchen utensils.
From our findings, the Junk yard is a source of income and accommodation for over 250 scavengers who are paired into groups of ten and placed under a leader. There are over 20 leaders at the Ganaja Bridge Junk yard.
Mr. Samuel also revealed that the Junk yard had reduced the rate of crime by engaging youths who were willing to work regardless of the nature of the job. “Some of the boys who are into this business are graduates, this is a legitimate job and it fetches you an honest income, it is better than taking to a life of crime and becoming a nuisance to society” he said.
While speaking on the challenges faced, Mr. Samuel noted that key among the challenges bedeviling the Junk yard was the problem of electricity. “Lokoja has little or no light and this affects the job here at the Junk yard as without light, the welders cannot weld and the grinding of the rubber cannot be done. Sometimes when the light comes on in the dead of the night, the boys have to wake up in other to get the job done”.
Mr. Samuel used the medium to call for Government partnership by bringing investors willing to open up recycling industries in the State. This he noted will create more job and business opportunities for the Scavengers.
He appealed to Government to provide a generator that has the capacity to power the grinder in the Junk yard as this he noted will go a long way in improving output and creating a better life for the Scavengers.
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