Page 17 - CEGE Magazine Fall 2022

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 We've made great progress on Phase 1 of the pilot so far. We have implemented our waste collection and health education programs in
two chiefdoms and currently are working with a network of eight women in those communities. So far, they have collected over 1600 pounds of plastic waste! We are also making arrangements with stakeholders in Jong chiefdom to expand the project in October by adding six new female Plastik Managers in two additional communities. Lastly, we finalized
our purchase of the land for our future recycling facility and will begin construction on the center in the coming months as we transition from rainy season to dry season. I am so happy with the success we have had so far and excited to see what the future holds for our work. 
– Phoebe Edalatpour
way. She determined to re-orient her career toward environmental engineering, which led her to UMN’s Master’s Sustainable Development Program (MSDP). “Of course I thought it was a good decision when I came to UMN, but each week moments come
up that convince me the MSDP is the right place for me.”
MSDP is offered through the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geo- Engineering
in partnership with the University’s Acara program. The MSDP is designed for students concentrating in Environmental Engineering or Water Resources Engineering. The innovative program involves two semesters on campus plus a nine-month project abroad. For her project, Edalatpour developed a plan to address problems she had seen in Sierra Leone.
She formed an organization called Wi Yone Plastik (translates to “Our Own Plastic”), designed to establish a recycling pathway for plastics and to funnel economic and health benefits to women in rural Sierra Leone. Wi Yone Plastik implements community level, female-run plastic collection services that work in conjunction with local recycling centers to convert plastic waste into building materials like bricks and tiles. Edalatpour took on the role of Development Director and enlisted some local partners, Rebecca T. Gbessay, who is the Program Manager Community Outreach, and Swahibu Koroma, the Program Manager Technical Operations. The project has been well-planned to build local buy-in and transition to local control.
Edalatpour arranged the project in two phases. The first is establishing a plastics waste collection path in four villages. Once collected, the plastic will be sent
to established processing centers, now located in Sierra Leone’s three largest cities. The second phase will be to establish a processing center to turn the used plastic into building materials. Residents of the small villages favor having one of these plants with its economic advantages close to their rural villages.
The work Edalatpour has done impressed the Acara Challenge judges who awarded her the gold prize.
Edalatpour has been in Sierra Leone since June and will remain there for nine months.
University of Minnesota College of Science and Engineering | DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL, ENVIRONMENTAL, AND GEO- ENGINEERING 17