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Tendai Rupapa in NEW YORK

ENVIRONMENT patron, First Lady Dr Auxillia Mnangagwa on Monday joined other global First Ladies in signing 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 becomes one of the 30 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.

Herself a passionate and committed player in environmental management and protection, Dr Mnangagwa said she had learnt a lot at the zero waste movement and efforts to mitigate the effects of climate change.

First Lady Dr Auxillia Mnangagwa, her counterparts, Mrs Fatima Maada Bio of Sierra Leone, Mrs Emine Erdogan of Türkiye and other environment champions follow proceedings during the Global zero waste goodwill declaration on the sidelines of the 78th United Nations General Assembly meeting on Monday

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.

She is also fighting to curb climate change through leading communities in massive tree planting, promoting the protection of forests as well as the cultivation of traditional grains which thrive in adverse weather conditions to ensure food security.

Dr Mnangagwa recently launched underground colour-coded waste disposal facilities which are ideal for waste separation, emit less odor, are less prone to vandalism and have high aesthetic appeal.

The pilot project was unveiled at Mavambo Shopping Centre in Ruwa.

“As we came to attend this Zero Waste movement led by the First Lady of Türkiye Mrs Erdogan, we learnt a lot that if we do that in our country, it is going to help reduce this problem of climate change. In our country we have already started this zero waste management and we need to take it to another level. We as people, we should also be working towards reduction of the problems that we are causing and save mother earth. Right now the whole world is reaching a point of boiling because of what we are doing today which will cause a lot of problems in future. We should not cut down trees, we should not burn forests, because by doing so we are also affecting our wildlife. Zero means stop, so we should stop quickly what we are doing to avoid creating problems for the future,” she said.

Dr Mnangagwa said going forward, she will go an extra mile promoting responsible behaviour among the country’s citizenry. 

First Lady Dr Auxillia Mnangagwa signs a Global Zero Waste goodwill declaration on the sidelines of the 78th United Nations General Assembly meeting on Monday

“I am going to advocate to our people that they are responsible for environmental protection. The plastics that we are throwing everywhere are suffocating us and most of our animals. It’s all about what we are doing daily and we are now faced with harsh problems daily caused by climate change caused by what is happening in the whole world, caused by what we are doing today. We are saying by 2030 everyone should have taken and done his or her part. 

In our country, we also have the national environment clean up which was introduced by His Excellency the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe Cde ED Mnangagwa. It is not that we clean once every month, but cleaning is a routine which has to be done on a daily basis and knowing where to discard of trash. The good part, trash is money and it also creates employment which is also good for life sustenance and looking after our families, so I am encouraging our people of Zimbabwe that they should act, its everyone’s responsibility. This the time to implement all that we are talking about so that it becomes a reality and we can harness tomorrow’s life today. We must be responsible in all we do today so that it does not affect us in the future. 

“I have signed the zero waste management pledge saying that Zimbabwe is agreeable to what is happening in the whole world we cannot be left behind. My signature to this emphasises that Zimbabwe is also involved so we want our country to take this seriously because we have already started it and everyone has to take part and everyone has a duty to work towards environment protection and avoid land degradation,” she said.

Every first Friday of the month is Environment Clean-up Day by President Mnangagwa as part of measures to promote a clean environment, ward off diseases and ensure the country has a good image and also achieves zero waste.

In her remarks, Mrs Erdogan said the declaration, representing the initial phase of the Zero Waste movement’s global expansion, was opened for signing in collaboration with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

“Let us unite for the sake of our shared home, the world, and amplify our voices. My call garnered an enthusiastic response from numerous prominent environmental advocates, particularly UN officials and other First Ladies,” she said

The Zero Waste project, spearheaded in Türkiye was jointly developed on an international level last year by Mrs Erdogan and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

First Lady Dr Auxillia Mnangagwa pays her condolences to her Türkiye counterpart Mrs Emine Erdogan for the loss of life and property following an earthquake which occurred in her country

The Mayor of New York Mr Eric Adams who was also in attendance, emphasised the importance of maintaining Planet earth saying there were two mothers, the one who gives birth to mankind and the one who sustains people, meaning the planet.

Mr Adams thanked the First Lady of Türkiye for hosting the event and for her Zero Waste Global Commitment.

He further applauded all the First Ladies who attended and signed. 

Turkiye’s Environment Minister hammered on the need to reduce the impact of climate change sharing that their nation recently had floods.

He spoke on measures their nation was taking to reduce waste and recycle material.

His country’s education curriculum, the minister said, was now also focusing on recycling and protecting the environment.

“As of to date 20 million people have been trained in zero waste management and we have saved 432 million trees which could have been destroyed because of agriculture and other activities,” he said.

The UN Habitat executive director Maimunah Mohd Sharif mentioned that there were a lot of global challenges to date and there was need to address them by recycling and protecting biodiversity.

UN under secretary-general Mr Guy Ryder emphasised the United Nations support to the Zero waste initiative.

“For us to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), waste management is key. We need to find better ways of treating our waste so that we protect the environment.”

The United Nations General Assembly on 14 December 2022 formally recognised the importance of zero-waste initiatives and proclaimed 30 March as the International Day of Zero Waste, to be observed annually beginning in 2023. 

Zero-waste initiatives can foster sound waste management, minimise and prevent waste.