Joseph Turay- Environment and sustainability enthusiast, Sierra Leone/Rwanda

Joseph Turay is a third-year Global Challenges student at the African Leadership University, Kigali, Rwanda. He realised he was an environment and sustainability enthusiast who wanted to create change in the environment space by advocating for environmental conservation and carbon emissions reduction strategies. Besides his passion for transforming the environment into a better living place for human inhabitants, Joseph has a significant interest in research, writing, youth empowerment, plastic waste management, and social development. 

As an Environmentalist and aspiring Climate Change Practitioner, Joseph aims to design a solution to tackle plastic waste incineration and disposal in marine environments to help promote suitable climates and conserve marine life. The solution involves the provision of trash cans to homes and offices in Sierra Leone for preserving plastic waste; thereafter arranging  the collection and recycling of the plastic waste into plastic paving, fencing and concrete bricks, and making them available to construction companies and individuals planning to construct, fence or pave the outdoor floor of a house. This solution will reduce poverty, provide jobs, promote sustainable housing and infrastructure, and enhance environmental safety and protection.

Joseph’s idea of providing trash bins and collecting and recycling plastic waste into useful construction products came about after realising that Sierra Leone lacked sustainable waste management strategies (only 21% of solid wastes are adequately collected and disposed of, according to a Concern Worldwide report). Households were previously burning their trash or disposing of it in streets, drains, bridges, and landfills, where it inevitably ended up in marine areas before or during the rainy season. 

Activities in the last five years

Over the last five years, Joseph worked tirelessly with the youth in Sierra Leone to promote educational opportunities for children in his community. They volunteered 10 hours per week to ensure the  children received the education they deserved in order to influence impactful change in society. At the same time, he joined efforts with Vision for Youth Evangelistic World Outreach to educate young people about self-ownership and make the right decisions in diverse life stages. Today, a number of children within Joseph’s community are now schooling, while the youth participating in his volunteer programme are making exciting decisions and endeavoring to realise their desired educational opportunities at tertiary level.