Bilikiss Adebiyi is the bright mind behind a private initiative turning waste-to-wealth and protecting the environment from the devastating effects of the prevalent indiscriminate waste dumping in Nigeria.
It all began with an academic assignment that required her and her team members to find solutions to help people at the bottom of the social pyramid while she was a student at MIT. From there she got the idea to launch WeCycler, a waste collection and recycling services company, in 2012.
Unique to Bilikiss Adebiyi’s WeCycler is the incentive it provides waste donors for every kilogram of recycled waste. Through this reward system, Bilikiss has been able to get more than 5,000 households to willingly participate in gathering waste, thereby reducing indiscriminate waste dumping.
Apart from the fact that Bilikiss and her company WeCyclers, won the Smart Cities Innovation Awards Grand Prize Le Monde 2017, in some parts of Lagos State, Bilikiss’ idea has helped to promote clean environment, proper waste disposal, turning waste to wealth, as well as creating jobs for over 50 persons.
In a society where indiscriminate waste dumping is rife and the authorities do not see the potential in an efficient waste management system, Bilikiss’s WeCycler has proven that waste collection and recycling could be a gold mine and a driver of a cleaner and safer environment.
