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By Rita Okoye
A 15-year-old Lagos student, Joshua Fapohunda, has attracted attention for crafting a school bag using over 1,000 plastic bottle caps, a creative solution born out of necessity.
The Earthplus Sustainability Network, founded by Caleb Adebayo, discovered the young innovator during its Project SOLVE 2.0 competition, which empowers students to tackle plastic pollution.
Joshua, a student of Oshodi Comprehensive Junior High School, explained, “When my parents couldn’t afford a school bag, I started collecting plastic caps with my sister and used them to make one.” He now hopes to produce more of such eco-friendly bags for other children.
The competition featured several schools presenting sustainability projects. Oke-Ira Senior Grammar School emerged winner with its “Environment Bee” project, which transforms plastic bottles into greenhouses for urban farming. Grandmates School came second with “From Litters to Leaders.”
Held in partnership with LASEPA and the Lagos State Ministry of Environment and Water Resources, the event also featured a panel session themed “From Waste to Wealth.” The winning school received N500,000 to implement its project.
Speaking at the event, Earthplus Deputy Team Lead, Mosadoluwa Otenaike, said, “We believe young people are key to solving environmental challenges.”
Speaking on the vision behind the initiative, Earthplus founder, Adebayo said the project reflects the organisation’s mission to drive social impact through sustainability and development finance.
“Students like Joshua have shown us that so much is possible even with very little. We’ve seen potential sponsors express interest in supporting his work since the event. This is why we do what we do — and we look forward to an even bigger Project SOLVE 3.0″ Adebayo stated.
