Tackling the tide of trash

应对垃圾之潮

The Conversation

2025-05-12

26 分钟
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Datshiane Navanayagam talks to women from Nigeria and the UK who are trying to ensure what we throw away doesn’t go to waste. Esther Fagbo is a partner at Wecyclers in Nigeria – a for-profit social enterprise that pays waste pickers and households for their recyclable rubbish in densely populated Lagos. Alongside her work at Wecyclers she has carried out projects with Fair Plastic Alliance, an NGO that supports the health and livelihood of waste workers, including a 2024 documentary Heroes of Recycling. Maxine Mayhew is chief operating officer, collections and specialist services at Biffa, one of the UK's largest waste-management companies. They work out what can be recycled and deliver to recycling centres. Maxine oversees collections and sorting of household waste for local authorities, as well as all industrial and commercial collection and waste from construction and demolitions. She also heads up the company shop group which stops goods that could be in the food chain going to landfill, so that they can instead go to those facing food poverty. Produced by Jane Thurlow (Image: (L) Maxine Mayhew credit Biffa. (R) Esther Fagbo credit Fotovillager/Asere Oluwatunmise Samuel.)
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  • This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK.

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  • Dear Daughter, from the BBC World Service.

  • Listen now wherever you get your BBC podcasts.

  • Hello, I'm Dashiani Navanayagam and welcome to The Conversation from the BBC World Service.

  • This is the programme which amplifies women's voices from around the world,

  • allowing us to hear the extraordinary things women are achieving.

  • Today,

  • my two guests both work to mitigate the effects of something that every single human contributes to –

  • rubbish.

  • The United Nations Global Waste Management Outlook predicts that the amount of stuff we throw away will increase from 2.3 billion tonnes in 2023 to 3.8 billion by 2050.

  • So what do we do with it all?

  • And can anything stem the rising tide of waste that humans are creating?

  • Esther Fagbo is a partner at Recyclers in Nigeria,

  • a for-profit social enterprise that pays waste pickers and households for their recycled rubbish in Lagos.

  • She's also involved with Fair Plastic Alliance,

  • a NGO which ensures that people picking waste are fairly paid and looked after.

  • And Maxine Mayhew is a Chief Operating Officer at BIFA,

  • one of the UK's largest waste management companies.

  • She oversees collections and sorting of household commercial and industrial waste.