Greening Gulu Through Monthly Community Clean-Ups - #MakeGuluGreen

Volunteers collecting trash along Jomo Kenyatta road in Gulu - Photo by: Friendship Photography

It is a fact that our drains in Gulu are clogged with plastic waste; this creates breeding grounds for malaria bearing mosquitoes and thus an increase in malaria cases. Also, most public places are messy because of littering and other improper waste management practices. Furthermore, a lot of people are unknowingly inhaling carcinogens due to open burning of plastic waste; leading to increasing cases of cancer. 

But all this can be changed. It only takes adoption of better practices. It only takes you and me to derive better solutions. And love for people and the planet will motivate us to become better members of the community. All we need is to accept that we own all the problems. All we need is stewardship. 

Stewardship is the best approach towards proper waste management in any community. The problems that arise from such poor waste management practices directly affect every member of the community. Throwing your kaveera or soda bottle anyhow clogs drains increasing malaria carrying mosquitoes and burning plastic in your compound releases fumes dangerous to your health. However, it costs just love for people and the planet to adopt eco-friendly practices like placing your waste in a proper bin.

On the 7th of February 2020, we held our first ever community clean-up activity in Gulu, Uganda. It was the inception of a monthly clean-up activity geared towards bringing awareness about waste management in Gulu Municipality. We came up with the idea with a couple of colleagues working with different organisations.  

Part of the team cleaning around Gulu Main Market. - Photo by: Young Jero

The night before the activity, we were hosted by Radio King, one of the major radio stations in Gulu Municipality. Here we highlighted key issues that ought to be addressed if Gulu is to become a green city. In attendance were representatives from Takataka Plastics, Hashtag Gulu, O-waste, and one concerned citizen by the names of Odoki Brian (Commonly known as Machine). 

During the first hour of the activity, we were all scared about how many people would turn up. We kept on asking ourselves “Will people really volunteer to come and pick trash in the market and along the streets?”. This is because waste collection is deemed to be a dirty activity by most members of the community. Indeed only a few people showed up at first. However, the number gradually increased and we had more than 35 individuals by the end of the activity.

After several hours collecting the trash along a stretch of about 1KM, we gathered together at Elephante Commons where our offices are located for lunch and a debrief. We had more interactions on how to make the next activity more engaging.

At the end of the activity, we had collected 6 bags of plastic bottles and disposable cups, 10 bags of plastic bags, 1 bag of waste fabrics, 17 bags of organic waste and 4 bags of cardboard. This was indeed an eyeopener to the magnitude of waste within our community. We were especially amazed how much rubbish was along a short stretch of street.

Different categories of waste arriving at our collection centre- Photo credit: Friendship Photography

This activity is part of the #MakeGuluGreen campaign that brings together different stakeholders to derive mechanisms towards improved waste management practices. Other activities under this campaign include school outreaches leading to formation of eco-healthy clubs, roundtable discussions with different stakeholders, and fairs to exhibit solutions towards waste management.

This voluntary activity brought together players from both the private and the public sector. The civil society organization had representation from Hashtag Gulu and CEED Uganda, the private sector was represented by AfriGreen Sustain, Takataka Plastics and O-Waste and O-Cafe. The academia fraternity was fully represented by students from Gulu University’s faculty of Agriculture and Environment. The diverse background of the participants exhibited a growing stewardship towards environment and waste management in particular. A few cleaners at the main market who participated in the activity got hands on training on solid waste management especially in waste segregation. They realized the vast opportunities that come waste separation and were introduced to initiatives like Takataka Plastics that offers incentives for plastic waste deposited at their collection centre. 

Some of the volunteers pausing for a group photo after the community clean-up - Photo by: Friendship Photography

We would like to thank everyone who endeavoured to come and support us. We look forward to having you during the next cleanup activity scheduled for the 6th March 2020. Follow our Facebook page for more details or check the activity video here (Make Gulu Green Community Clean-Up Video).