From Right: Seleem Adegunwa, Managing Director of Rite Foods Limited; with Babatunde Adebayo, Chief Executive Officer, Westman Recycle, Winner of the Recyclers Innovation Series; Tairat Bashorun, Operations Lead, GIVO Africa, Second Runner-up; and Habib Haruna, General Manager, Recycle Works, First. Runner-up; during the recyclers innovation series sponsored by Rite Foods Limited, held in Lagos recently

Rite Foods Limited, one of Nigeria’s leading food and beverage company,  has urged recyclers to continually adopt up-to-the-minute approach in the recycling of plastic waste collected from the environment, especially the coastal areas, during an innovation training series organised for them, with the fundamentals and technical implementation processes inherent in their operations.

The company powered the innovation scheme for recycling start-ups in its ongoing bid at ridding the environment of plastic waste, as it did with the award-winning project, Riteonthebeach’ which cleared 100,000 plastic bottles from the shorelines of Lagos.

The training which was in collaboration with the Circular Economy Innovation Partnership (CEIP), saw the Managing Director of the Lagos State Waste Management Authority (LAWMA), Ibrahim Odumboni, commending Rite Foods for the exercise aimed at broadening the recyclers’ horizon on how to keep the state and the country a better place to live and free from plastic waste, mostly caused by growth in urbanisation.

The Rite Foods’ sponsored event culminated in the pitch of the business ideas of a series of recycling companies that took part at the final presentation ceremony of the three months exercise on Tuesday, 28 March, 2023.

The innovation scheme which involves the fundamentals of plastic recycling, the business processes, the development of new techniques as well as the technical architecture that is suitable for adoption in the advancement of recyclable materials for a cleaner environment, saw Westman Recycle, emerging as the winner and benefits accrued to the tech-driven recycling company include support for business growth. This was followed by Recycle Works as the first runner-up, while GIVO Africa emerged as the second runner-up.

Other recycling companies that also participated in the final stage include Recycavaenue, Brickify Limited, Trashusers, Retreasure, and Nature Kcalls, with brilliant presentations on how their start-up works.

The winner was selected after a thorough scrutiny of the various plastic waste collection and recycling ideas by the judges which include the LAWMA boss Odumboni, Rite Foods Managing Director, Seleem Adegunwa, Deputy Consul General, the Netherlands Consulate, Ms. Leonie Van Der Stiji, Chief Operating Officer, Nigeria Climate Innovation Centre, Mr. Adamu Garba, Advisor Nigeria, UNIDO IPTO Germany, Mr. Adekunle Olusile, all admonishing the recyclers to be strongly committed in their cause of tech-driven recycling operations while maximising gains.

Speaking at the event, Rite Foods Managing Director, Mr. Seleem Adegunwa, posits that the leading company with a lot of inventiveness in the production of its award-winning brands has been supporting the growth of innovation in various spheres of endeavor, promoting talent for the actualization of set dreams by young Nigerians and that it threw its weight behind the recyclers training exercise as it aligns with its mission of putting consumers at topmost priority and making them successful in life.

He stated that the scheme was part of the company’s contribution to the growth of start-ups and the preservation of the environment, as evident in its ‘Riteonthebeach initiative conducted by Pop Beach Club.

Adegunwa further admonished the participants to always be dogged with their business ideas and also be very flexible to adapt to modern trends to make it more successful, like Rite Foods, with the various steps taken since inception in making its brands, Proudly-Nigerian.

On her part, the Director, Network and Relationship, CEIP, Yomi Odutola, eulogised Rite Foods for the laudable scheme, and affirmed that the training was an exposure for recyclers to adopt modern measures in plastic recycling into new products for useful purposes.