Government has pleaded with Malawians to work out on innovative ways of managing the country`s wastes. 

Minister of Forestry and Natural Resources Nancy Tembo made the plea at a news conference in Lilongwe ahead of the launch of National Cleanup Day by President Lazarus Chakwera slated for Wednesday, next week.

According to the Minister, people in the country should take up the responsibility of ensuring that their environment is clean at all times.

Tembo said wastes need to be managed innovatively by ensuring that it is reused, recycled and reduced.

“In the villages we don’t have a city to clean our wastes, in the remote areas we do it ourselves, so I think what we need to do in those areas is to make sure that we have a dumping place,” she said.

“We dump all the organic wastes but also have one pit for dumping the plastics and if you can reuse those plastics the better because there is now innovation people are using the plastics for making carrier bags, concrete blocks or even sale those plastics to companies that make plastics.”

On his part Secretary General for the Association for Environmental Journalists in Malawi (AEJ) Charles Mkoka has asked government to collaborate with other stakeholders in championing the conservation of the environment.

“We suggested that we also need to engage other players, get them on board, here they announced that they will be working with the Ministry of Local Government, but we feel that they can extend invitation to ministries of Education and Youth, the participation of young people will take this initiative to a higher level,” said Mkoka.

Recently, Tembo told the National Assembly that Chakwera’s intention to launch a National Cleanup Day in Malawi with the purpose of mobilizing the general public to participate in taking care of and cleaning their environment.