Walk for Waste raising funds for developing countries
A charity walk up Mount Snowdon is being held to raise money for WasteAid UK, which was set up to deliver practical and low-cost waste services to developing countries.
The Walk for Waste, taking place on the evening of Saturday, 16 July, has been organised by Sally Talbot, Vice Chair of the Local Authority Recycling Advisory Committee (LARAC) in support of the charity, which was established by waste management professionals in 2015.
Participants will be asked to fundraise a minimum of £50 per person ahead of the 10-mile walk up the mountain’s Llanberis Trail. Departing from Llanberis train station in the evening, the Walk for Waste will reach the mountain’s 1,085-metre peak for sunset before returning to the station for 11pm.
Mike Webster, WasteAidUK Chair, said: “The Walk for Waste will follow one of the most popular routes to the top of Mount Snowdon. We’re hoping plenty of people will join us to raise funds for WasteAid UK so we can continue sharing waste management expertise with those who really need it.
“Three billion people lack rubbish collection and disposal services, and it’s causing a global health crisis.
“We partner with local organisations to improve the health, environment and livelihoods of people without waste services. Our focus is on building the skills of local people to deliver practical solutions to the waste crisis in their own communities.”
WasteAid UK
WasteAid UK aims to deliver simple recycling and waste management processes to communities in developing countries that have no access to established waste services.
The charity is also campaigning to encourage the donor community to increase spending on waste management from 0.3 per cent to three per cent of international aid.
According to the charity, 40 per cent of the world’s waste – from homes, businesses, agriculture, hospitals and industry – is not collected or treated. Open dumping and burning of waste cause many serious health problems and pollute the environment. Open dumps encourage vermin, poison air, land and water, and often result in waste entering the sea and harming marine life.
In 2015, the charity delivered its first project in The Gambia. Working with local partners to carry out a waste analysis to determine what materials were available in the general waste stream, simple recycling processes that are low-cost and easily replicable were developed, with training given to local volunteers from Women’s Initiative Gambia.
Through the simple processes developed in the communities, plastic bags can be turned into paving slabs, leaf litter into charcoal, fish waste into fishmeal and food waste into fertiliser, reducing emissions, litter and pollution and providing valuable resources.
Business and enterprise training was also given to locals so that they could set up small businesses to sell products made from recovered materials. Ongoing funding has now been secured for work in The Gambia and Senegal, meaning the charity’s partners can deliver waste management and recycling training.
The charity says that the next phase of the initiative will be to grow the network of waste trainers across the region, enabling skills to be shared from community to community.
More information on WasteAid UK can be found on the charity’s website. To register for the Walk for Waste, email [email protected] with Walk for Waste in the subject line.
