Country of Residence
Nigeria
Age
19
Project title
National Ocean Microplastics Monitoring Initiative (NOMMI Africa).
Project Summary: Describe your project in one sentence
Turning invisible plastic pollution into evidence and youth-led community action.
Website URL(s) or social media handles.
https://recyclemesolutions.com/ or. https://recyclemesolutions.com/initiatives/ocean-microplastics-monitoring-club/
Project Category
My project is an existing project that I started
Project Stage
Growth (We’ve moved past the very first activities and are beginning to have consistent weekly or monthly impact)
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 journey began after I moved from my village to Lagos and experienced a severe flood in my community. The water rose to about four feet, carried plastic bags, bottles and other waste into homes and streets, and disrupted school and work for nearly a week. I had seen litter before, but that experience made me understand that waste was not only an untidy sight; it was connected to flooding, livelihoods and environmental health. That experience inspired me to start RE-CYCLEME Solutions and recover plastic before it enters drains and waterways. After working in recycling, however, I began asking a different question: What happens to the plastic we fail to recover? My research led me to microplastics, tiny particles that can remain in water and coastal environments even after visible waste is removed. In that moment I realized that recycling and cleanups were important, but we also needed local evidence showing what was reaching our environment, what evidence shows the impact of recycling and a way for young people to help produce that evidence. This led me to establish NOMMI. I believed it could work because young Nigerians were eager to understand the issue and contribute. Our inaugural Eleko Beach exercise engaged 63 students and young participants, showing that environmental monitoring could become both scientific work and a platform for youth leadership.
The Problem: What problem are you helping to solve? Why does it matter to you and your community?
Plastic pollution is highly visible in Lagos, particularly in streets, drains, waterways and coastal areas. Far less visible is what happens when larger plastics break into microplastics, particles smaller than five millimetres that can remain in water, sediment and the wider environment. Nigeria and Africa has limited locally generated, repeated and publicly understandable evidence about microplastic pollution in its coastal environments. Many activities focus on collecting visible waste, while students and community members rarely learn how smaller particles are monitored, how findings are verified or how evidence can guide prevention. Without consistent local information, it is difficult to compare locations, identify patterns or assess whether interventions are making a difference. This matters to me because my work began with the effects of poorly managed waste in my community. Through recycling, I learned that recovering plastic is necessary, but it cannot tell us everything about material already lost to the environment. Young people and coastal communities live with this problem but are often treated only as cleanup volunteers, rather than contributors to knowledge and solutions. NOMMI addresses both gaps: the shortage of local evidence and the limited participation of young Nigerians in environmental research, education and decision-making.
Your Solution: How are you solving this problem? Share your specific solution.
NOMMI Africa; the National Ocean Microplastics Monitoring Initiative, is a youth-led nonprofit combining structured coastal monitoring, practical education and community action. We train students and young participants to understand plastic-pollution pathways, field safety, sample labelling, contamination prevention and the difference between suspected and scientifically confirmed microplastics. They then support supervised field activities using glass containers, stainless-steel filtration materials, location records, field blanks and other quality-control procedures. Samples are documented and examined through controlled methods. We communicate findings carefully: particles observed through optical examination remain preliminary unless confirmed through an appropriate analytical method. This prevents awareness work from becoming exaggerated scientific claims. We turn the work into educational resources, visual summaries and community discussions connecting evidence with actions such as reducing plastic leakage, improving sorting, strengthening recovery and planning targeted cleanups. Our inaugural exercise took place at Eleko Beach, Lagos, on May 16, 2026. It engaged 63 students and young participants from Pan-Atlantic University, the University of Lagos, Yaba College of Technology etc. The exercise produced an initial baseline dataset, informed a manuscript currently under peer review and helped us improve future monitoring. We have also produced our first microplastics educational toolkit. The next stage is to repeat monitoring, strengthen scientific supervision and expand youth participation. NOMMI gives young Africans a pathway from seeing pollution to understanding it, producing credible evidence and leading practical local responses.
Impact: How has your project created impact / made a difference so far? Or, if at an early stage, what will impact look like?
NOMMI has become an active youth-led environmental initiative. Our first field exercise took place at Eleko Beach, Lagos, on May 16, 2026. It directly engaged 63 students and young participants from Pan-Atlantic University, the University of Lagos, Yaba College of Technology etc. Participants learned about microplastics, field safety, sample collection, labelling and contamination control. More importantly, they contributed to the monitoring process rather than simply collecting visible waste. The exercise produced an initial Eleko Beach baseline dataset and informed a research manuscript currently under peer review. We have also produced NOMMI’s first microplastics educational toolkit, which turns a complex issue into explanations and activities students and community groups can understand and use. Our greatest impact so far is showing young people that environmental action can go beyond cleanups. They can ask questions, gather evidence, understand scientific limitations and use their knowledge to improve prevention. The next stage will repeat the monitoring, strengthen scientific supervision and engage more students and coastal communities. We will measure progress through trained participants, completed monitoring exercises, usable samples and datasets, learning assessments, toolkit use and practical actions developed from the findings.
Your Innovation: What is different about your project compared to other programs or solutions already out there? How is your project new or innovative?
Many plastic-pollution programmes focus on awareness campaigns or one-time beach cleanups. These activities are valuable, but they often remove visible waste without helping participants understand what remains in the environment or how evidence is produced. NOMMI connects four areas that are usually separated: plastic recovery, microplastics monitoring, youth education and community action. It complements the upstream work of RE-CYCLEME Solutions by examining what may escape collection systems and reach coastal environments. This creates a pathway from recovering plastic to monitoring pollution, understanding the evidence and improving prevention. Young people are not treated only as an audience or cleanup workforce. They learn field safety, sample labelling, contamination prevention, location recording and the difference between observation and scientific confirmation. They participate in supervised monitoring and help translate what they learn into educational resources and community conversations. Scientific honesty is another important difference. NOMMI does not describe every visually observed particle as confirmed microplastic. Preliminary observations are labelled clearly, limitations are documented and appropriate laboratory confirmation is sought where possible. This supports education without overstating our findings. Finally, NOMMI is designed for repeated monitoring rather than a single symbolic event. It combines reusable field procedures, locally generated datasets, an educational toolkit and collaboration with students and researchers. This gives young Africans a role in producing environmental knowledge while creating evidence that can support more targeted recovery, education and conservation decisions.
How many people are on your team?
4
Your team: What role(s) do your team members play? How do you share leadership with them?
We are a four-person youth team. I lead strategy, research and partnerships, while Samuel coordinates operations and youth engagement. Comfort, a chemistry undergraduate and Plasticwise Fellow, leads project planning, environmental education and field activities. John, a medical laboratory science student, supports sample handling, documentation and science communication. We share leadership by owning different workstreams, planning together and making key decisions as a team.
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, NOMMI will grow from its initial field exercise into a repeatable youth-led monitoring and education programme. Our first step is Phase II at Eleko Beach, planned for November 2026. We will use it to improve sampling, contamination-control, safety and documentation procedures; compare observations with our first exercise; and train another cohort of young participants. We will work with qualified scientific advisers to strengthen our methodology, secure a laboratory pathway for confirmatory analysis and build a clearer system for reviewing and storing field data. We will also respond to peer review of our first manuscript and share accepted findings without overstating what the evidence proves. Next, we will test NOMMI Coastal Evidence Clubs with schools and universities. Using our microplastics toolkit, each club will learn the science, map local plastic pathways and design a practical awareness or prevention activity. We will deepen relationships with universities, environmental organisations, coastal communities and recyclers, and expand to another Lagos site only when supervision, permission and resources are confirmed. Finally, we will complete nonprofit registration, define team roles and track participation, learning, data quality and follow-on youth action.
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.
We encourage people to join NOMMI by giving them meaningful roles in understanding and responding to plastic pollution. Rather than asking young people only to attend a talk or collect litter, we show them how environmental evidence is gathered, questioned and communicated. Our inaugural Eleko Beach exercise engaged 63 students and young participants from Pan-Atlantic University, the University of Lagos, Yaba College of Technology etc. They learned about microplastics, field safety, sample collection and contamination control. In supervised groups, they supported the field process and connected visible plastic waste with pollution that is harder to detect. We reach people through university networks, youth and environmental organisations, direct invitations, referrals and social media. Demonstrations, visual explanations and NOMMI’s toolkit make the science accessible. As we grow, participants will be invited to share what they learn, support future workshops and take leadership roles suited to their experience. Through planned Coastal Evidence Clubs, students will map local plastic pathways and lead awareness or prevention activities. Coastal residents and waste-sector participants will contribute local knowledge. Our aim is to turn concern into informed participation, shared ownership and youth-led action.
