Mariam Lawani is the Founder/CEO of Greenhill Recycling. She is an educator turned waste manager. She is a certified social sector manager from the prestigious Pan Atlantic University and a proud alumnus of the Cherie Blaire Foundation for Women. She started Greenhill Recycling from the garage of her house and now has over 5000 registered households who have adopted their recycling model.

Greenhill Recycling is a social enterprise born out of the urgent need to address the growing pollution crisis across the African continent. Leveraging technology, they provide a platform where people, especially in indigent communities can capture value from waste generated in their environments, to live healthier, longer lives. They believe that, recyclable waste if channelled into recycling value chains can potentially become a unit for exchanging value and a solution to address issues around poverty, unemployment, poor health infrastructure, educational gaps and poor road infrastructure.

Their users can exchange plastic waste for health insurance, school fees, groceries, electricity bills, home appliances or even start-up capital for a micro business.

They offer a convenient, reward-for-recycling service that recovers post-consumer and post- industrial waste from the source of generation into recycling value chains, preventing them from getting to dumpsites or causing an imbalance in our ecosystems. In exchange for recyclable waste, users earn “greenpoints” which can be converted to an incentive or cash. Corporate organisations also leverage their model to achieve their corporate sustainability goals.

In an interview with Aljazeera, she said “We encourage and sensitise people not to trash waste but to bag them neatly in their homes. We pick up from their doorstep, their homes and not in dump sites. Waste is a currency to address other issues around poverty, unemployment and the environment. People are able to exchange waste for profitable things like school fees, clothes and even food.”

While speaking with CNN on the programme Inside Africa, Mariam said “You see trash, I see treasure. I walk through treasure.” Lawani revealed that things like plastic can be converted into polyester fibre that can be used for making clothes. She further stated that water sachet can be converted to pellets which can be used to make tarpaulin and waste bin bags. The entire process of Greenhill Recycling’s operation begins from awareness creation. They engage in a lot of sensitisation campaigns, getting people to understand that recycling is possible and available in Lagos, Nigeria.

From picking the items from their subscribers, to taking it through the needed process and delivering to other recycling companies higher in the value chain who are the end users, Greenhill Recycling remains steadfast in fostering social change within communities, using incentives to make the environmentally friendly habit of recycling attractive.