Nigerian teens create fashion out of trash to fight pollution

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — Teenage climate activists in Nigeria’s largest city are recycling trash into runway outfits for a “Trashion Show.”

Chinedu Mogbo, founder of the Greenfingers Wildlife Initiative, a conservation group that works with activists, said the program was designed to raise awareness about environmental pollution.

Lagos, one of Africa’s most populous cities with more than 15 million people, generates at least 12,000 metric tons of waste a day, authorities say. And enforcement of environmental laws is poor: The World Bank estimates that pollution kills at least 30,000 people in this city each year.

This year’s spectacle came just as world leaders wrapped up two weeks of UN climate talks in Egypt.

In collaboration with young activists and role models, the Greenfingers Wildlife Initiative says it wants to recycle as much plastic as possible, one community at a time.

Organize regular trash cleanups in communities, in drainage ditches, and on beaches. The plastic sand is then used to create fabrics for the fashion show.

Wrapped in cloth and red plastic spoons, 16-year-old Nethaniel Edegwa said she joined this year’s show as a model “to make a change.”

“We can see that we are all being affected by climate change, so I really want to make a difference,” Edegwa said.

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Asadu contributed from Abuja, Nigeria.

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Follow all AP stories on climate change issues at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment.

Source: news.google.com