ZIMBABWE’S environment patron, First Lady Auxillia Mnangagwa on Monday signed a Global Zero Waste goodwill declaration to implement sustainable waste management practices on the sidelines of the 78th UN General Assembly meeting in New York.
She joined 29 other First Ladies who have appended their signatures to the pledge.
The theme of the event is “The world is our common home: Path to Global Zero Waste Movement.”
The movement is being spearheaded by First Lady of Türkiye, Mrs Emine Erdogan.
Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan became the first zero waste volunteer by being the inaugural signatory of the Global Zero Waste declaration, made available for individual participation on its website.
The First Ladies and other high-profile environment champions pledged to promote the zero waste approach worldwide and share best practices for its wider recognition and application.
They also pledged to support initiatives, campaigns, programmes, projects and activities that promote zero waste to encourage responsible waste production and consumption.
“We commit to sharing the best practices and lessons learned from projects such as the Zero Waste Project of Turkiye, encouraging the development of similar policies on waste management. We call for UN member-states, UN system entities, and members of the civil society, private sector, media as well as local authorities to align strategies, approaches and programmatic responses to help accelerate a global transition to circular economy and reduce the adverse impact of waste on climate change,” they said in the declaration.
Mnangagwa said she had learnt a lot at the zero waste movement and efforts to mitigate the effects of climate change.
In Zimbabwe, Dr Mnangagwa is working in conjunction with the Environmental Management Agency (EMA) to promote good waste management practices with thousands of women, men, youths and the disabled being trained in recycling to reduce waste and create employment.
There are already some exciting stories where beneficiaries of the programme are turning waste into important products that are being exported to other countries.
