NIGERIA – The Federal government of Nigeria and others have reviewed the draft National Environmental (Plastic Waste Control) Regulation that would enable key players to check plastic pollution in the country.
Speaking at the meeting in Abuja, the Chairman of the occasion, Prof. Babajide Alao, said the gathering was meant to carry out the final review of the document, as the issue of plastics pollution has become a global challenge to humanity.
Alao explained that the world may have been bombarded with million tonnes of plastic to the extent that streets, dumpsites, gutters, streams, seas and oceans are filled with these dangerous products that lack proper mechanisms on how to handle it.
Director-General, the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA), Prof. Aliyu Jauro, said the draft has also been validated across all six geopolitical zones, adding, that it will provide the needed tool to enforce the policy.
He declared: “We will reap the benefits of plastic waste control. It is a valuable resource in terms of its contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and job creation. Nigeria’s per capita consumption of plastics will grow further at 5-7 percent per year.
“The policy on Plastic Waste Management was aimed at reducing plastic pollution in the environment by 50 percent by the year 2025. We strongly believe that the National Environmental Regulations will provide the needed tool for the enforcement.”
Similarly, Dr. Amadu Jubrin of the Federal Ministry of Environment assured stakeholders that the policy will not push them out of business, saying, “we want to eliminate plastic pollution and set up community-based facilities for the collection of wastes.”
In a presentation, Dr. Leslie Adogame said: “We are developing legislative instruments, standards, trade measures, models and systems that would support plastic waste management taking cognizance of the lifecycle in an environmentally sustainable and socially safe manner in the country.
According to him, it will limit the littering of single use plastics, packaging products and waste materials in the environment, as well as reduce plastic waste generation by 50 percent of its baseline figure of 2020 by year 2025.
He maintained that reducing plastic debris from land-based activities that become (atmospheric, terrestrial and aquatic) litter in line with respective environmental, as well as reduce the global warming and greenhouse effects associated with plastic production by 2030.
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