Country of Residence
Nigeria
Age
18
Project title
Dispensing plastic
Project Summary: Describe your project in one sentence
We tackle plastic pollution in Anambra State by pairing locally fabricated, accessible waste-sorting units with hands-on peer education that has empowered over 5,000 students to turn everyday litter into a tracked, recyclable resource.
Website URL(s) or social media handles.
https://www.instagram.com/nwajesuschidubemu?xtok=NnNpaWV3MGY5Mndv
Project Category
My project is an existing project that I started
Project Stage
Scaling (We’re expanding impact to new locations or in new and innovative ways)
Founding Story: What was the spark that led you to start your project? What was the "Aha!" moment that led you to get started and see the potential for this to succeed?
My spark moment happened right on my own school compound in niger State after a major clean-up drive. Together with a few classmates, I spent hours picking up discarded pure water sachets and plastic bottles, feeling proud that we had cleared the yard. Yet by the very next afternoon, the ground was littered all over again. That was my "Aha!" moment. I realized that cleaning up trash after it hits the ground would never solve the problem—students weren't littering out of malice; they simply had nowhere convenient to put their plastics and no real understanding of where that waste went. Watching a student finish a sachet and hesitate before dropping it on the floor made everything click: if we placed locally built, easy-to-use collection units right where plastics are consumed and paired them with peer-to-peer education, behavior would change naturally. When I pitched the idea to my co-leads, Ahmed and Uswat, and saw how eagerly our classmates jumped in to build and use the very first sorting unit, I knew we had something real. That single realization grew into a movement that has now educated over 5,000 local students and earned recognition as a 2024 National Geographic Slingshot Challenge awardee—proving that small, youth-led shifts can spark lasting community change.
The Problem: What problem are you helping to solve? Why does it matter to you and your community?
Across Anambra State, Nigeria, single-use plastic pollution has become an unavoidable part of daily life. From pure water sachets to discarded PET bottles, uncollected plastics pile up along roadsides, school compounds, and open spaces. Without accessible sorting infrastructure or consistent public education, everyday convenience quickly turns into long-term environmental degradation—choking drainage channels, polluting soil, and creating unhealthy surroundings where young people live and learn. Growing up in Anambra, I refused to accept littered streets and burning plastic piles as normal. Watching my own school community struggle with overflowing waste showed me that the issue isn't a lack of care—it's a lack of practical tools and youth-centered action. Solving this problem matters deeply to me because young people inherit the consequences of today's environmental neglect, yet we are rarely given the agency to fix it. By combining locally built plastic collection units with peer-led education across over 5,000 students, my team and I are proving that cleaner, healthier communities start when youth take direct ownership of local waste solutions.
Your Solution: How are you solving this problem? Share your specific solution.
We tackle single-use plastic pollution in Anambra State through a two-part solution that pairs accessible, locally built collection hardware with structured peer-to-peer education. Instead of treating plastic waste as an afterthought, we intervene right where plastics are consumed and discarded. In action, our model starts with deploying custom-built, modular plastic dispensing and sorting units in high-traffic school compounds and public gathering spots. Fabricated from durable, locally sourced materials, each unit features clear compartments that guide students and residents to separate PET bottles, sachets, and rigid plastics at the point of disposal. Alongside my co-leads Ahmed and Uswat, our Green Team volunteers monitor these stations weekly, weighing and logging recovery data so we can track exact diversion rates and prevent overflow before plastics enter local drainages. To ensure the units are actively used rather than ignored, we pair every installation with hands-on behavioral training. Through interactive Green Team workshops and live waste-sorting drills across neighboring schools, we have directly equipped over 5,000 students with practical skills in circular economy habits and source separation. Students don't just drop off bottles—they lead campus collection drives, compete in inter-school recovery challenges, and help route aggregated plastics to local recyclers and upcyclers. By combining convenient, low-cost infrastructure with student-led accountability, our solution turns everyday litter into a tracked, recoverable resource while building lasting environmental habits across our community.
Impact: How has your project created impact / made a difference so far? Or, if at an early stage, what will impact look like?
Growing up in Anambra State, Nigeria, seeing single-use plastics clog our streets and spaces pushed me to act rather than wait for solutions. I launched a community-based plastic dispensing and waste diversion initiative—work that earned recognition as a 2024 National Geographic Society Slingshot Challenge awardee. Instead of relying on passive awareness, we combined accessible plastic collection infrastructure with intensive peer education. By placing practical dispensing and sorting units in busy public spots and schools, we diverted hundreds of kilograms of plastic waste from local ecosystems within our first few months, noticeably cleaner streets and shared spaces for local residents. The true multiplier, however, has been knowledge. Through my leadership in our school’s Green Team, I organized hands-on workshops, waste-sorting drills, and environmental campaigns that directly educated over 5,000 local students across neighboring schools on circular economy habits and cutting single-use plastic reliance. We also trained a dedicated core of 30+ student volunteers who now manage ongoing sorting drives and peer outreach. Seeing students actively shift from littering to leading recycling efforts in their own schools proves that combining practical infrastructure with youth-led education creates lasting cultural change.
Your Innovation: What is different about your project compared to other programs or solutions already out there? How is your project new or innovative?
Most waste initiatives in Nigeria rely on one of two approaches: one-off community cleanups that treat symptoms without stopping daily littering, or centralized recycling centers that are too far or complicated for everyday students and residents to use. Our project bridges this gap by combining decentralized, locally fabricated plastic dispensing and collection infrastructure with peer-to-peer behavioral education. What makes our model innovative is its closed-loop, youth-driven design tailored specifically to high-traffic school and community spaces in Anambra State. Instead of waiting for municipal trucks or expecting residents to travel miles to drop off recyclables, we bring modular, low-cost plastic dispensing and sorting units directly to where single-use plastics are generated. These units are built using durable, locally sourced materials, making them affordable to fabricate, easy to maintain, and adaptable to local conditions without relying on expensive imported technology. Equally unique is how we pair hardware with human behavior. Infrastructure fails when people don’t know—or care—how to use it. Alongside Ahmed, Uswat, and our Green Team network, we turned waste management into an active, student-owned habit rather than an adult-imposed rule. Through interactive sorting drills, inter-school challenges, and direct student tracking of recovery metrics across over 5,000 peers, young people become the primary operators and educators of the system. By merging accessible local hardware with grassroots youth leadership, we created a scalable, low-cost blueprint that turns passive awareness into measurable daily plastic diversion.
How many people are on your team?
3
Your team: What role(s) do your team members play? How do you share leadership with them?
I run this initiative closely with my core co-leads, Ahmed and Uswat, supported by our 30+ student volunteers. Ahmed manages field logistics and maintains our plastic dispensing units, while Uswat spearheads student outreach and coordinates school workshops. We practice shared leadership through weekly strategy huddles where we co-design campaigns, split responsibilities evenly, and make decisions together—ensuring all three of us take direct ownership of our impact.
What’s Next: What are the next steps you plan to take to grow or strengthen your project over the next year? If your project is still in the idea stage, describe the steps you will take over the next three months to launch or begin developing it.
Over the next year, my main priority is shifting our plastic diversion initiative from a school-centered effort into a self-sustaining community network across Anambra State. Having already engaged over 5,000 students, I want to expand both our physical infrastructure and our local partnerships. First, I plan to build and deploy 10 upgraded plastic dispensing and collection units across busy markets, transit hubs, and additional schools, aiming to double our monthly plastic recovery rate. To ensure collected plastics actually re-enter the circular economy rather than piling up, I am actively working to formalize partnerships with local recycling aggregators and upcycling artisans who can process the sorted materials into reusable goods. Second, I want to strengthen our youth leadership pipeline. I will launch a structured Green Ambassador training program for 100 student leaders across 10 new schools, equipping them with simple waste-tracking sheets and workshop guides so they can run independent collection drives. Finally, leveraging my role as Secretary of the GSP Youth Council, I will document our local blueprint into an open-source guide, allowing young advocates in other regions to adapt our model to their own communities.
How do you encourage other people to join your project or learn about the problem you’re working on? If you have a new idea, tell us how you will do this in the future.
People rarely join a cause from lectures alone—they join when they see tangible action and feel real ownership. Growing up in Anambra State, I realized early on that mobilizing my peers around plastic pollution meant making sustainability practical, relatable, and youth-led. Through our school’s Green Team, I replaced traditional talks with interactive waste-sorting drills, friendly inter-school recycling challenges, and open design sessions where students helped set up our plastic dispensing and collection units. Instead of treating them as passive listeners, I gave students direct roles in tracking waste metrics, leading peer awareness drives, and managing collection points. So far, this approach has directly engaged over 5,000 local students across neighboring schools in Anambra, along with a dedicated core team of 30+ active student volunteers. Those volunteers have gone on to run weekly plastic collection drives, educate younger classes on circular economy habits, and maintain sorting stations across their campuses. Moving forward, especially through my role as Secretary of the GSP Youth Council, I plan to scale this peer-to-peer model by creating simple digital toolkits and hosting youth ambassador bootcamps so students in other communities can replicate our plastic diversion blueprint independently.
