Littering has become one of the major problem in Zimbabwe's cities. Consumers who have embraced a culture of littering are most to blame. One of the ways out of this predicament is in the form of the 'Three Rs' - Recycling, Reusing and Renewing.

As newly appointed Ambassador to my region, last Saturday (11 October) I held my first campaign in my home City of Bulawayo. It was a recycling campaign which aimed at raising awareness on the importance of waste management and recycling. It was also an event that hoped to encourage local youth to take part in environmental issues affecting them.

Participants of the event totaled to thirteen. These were young people comprising of mostly tertiary level students.

The day kicked off around 8am where we divided the group into two groups. The groups split-up and each went off to collect the recycling materials from different collection points. Prior to the event we went to about nine local supermarkets, restaurants and hotels and asked for permission to collect the material on the day. At around 11am our litter bags were full so we decided to go to the drop off point at a Recycling station about a kilometer away. African Recycling Management is a recycling station that sorts recyclable material, separates according to type, crushes them and sends to a recycling plant. We met up with Phil Darlemo, the director of the station who took us for a tour around and showed us the machines they use.

Around 1pm the team came back to the city and we were hungry for more cans and bottles to recycle. And within two hours we filled more trash bags with more material to take to the recycling station. Along the way those passing by would question us about our campaign and we gladly informed them about what we were doing and the importance of waste management. I also took the opportunity to inform them about Tunza Eco Generation.

In preparing for this event, I had the great assistance of a remarkable young lady who is passionate about environmental conservation and raising awareness on environmental issues. Busi Falala is one of the finalists for this year's Miss Environment Zimbabwe beauty pageant. This true example of Beauty with a purpose has since July been partaking in various environmental awareness campaigns. It was a great pleasure to work with her on this campaign.

Evaluation
The event was a good personal experience for me and those who participated, however, there were points of improvement we noted through the couse of the event.

Challenges:
Although African Recycling Management is a recycling station it currently does not actually turn recycle material into processes and ready to use goods. It just crushed the material and sends it for actual recycling in neighboring South Africa. As a result they do not offer significant amounts of money for those bringing recyclable material – hence this discourages locals to take part in the recycling business. Luckily, the director told us that they are at a process of constructing a plant that would be able to turn the material into finished goods.

Other challenges we faced in our campaign was the problem of small number of participants. With a larger crowd we could have been able to collect larger amounts of waste in a shorter time period. This was caused partly by the fact that with a larger crowd (e.g. 20 to 100 people) we would have required clearance from the police.