LAGOS: Nigerian shop manager Olarewanju Ogunbona says he uses Styrofoam and plastic packs at least five times a day \u2014 nothing unusual in the megacity of Lagos, one of the world\u2019s most plastics-polluted urban areas.<\/p>\n
The city\u2019s over 20 million people contributed 870,000 tons of the world\u2019s 57 million tons of plastic waste in 2024. Lagos state authorities last month imposed a ban on single-use plastics, but residents say weak enforcement and the absence of alternatives have weakened its effectiveness.<\/p>\n
Under the law that kicked off on July 1, the use of single-use plastics such as cutlery, plates and straws is banned and offenders risk their businesses being shut down. However, other forms of plastics, which make up a smaller percentage of the city\u2019s waste, are still in use.<\/p>\n
The ban is far from being fully implemented, as some shops still display Styrofoam packs on their shelves.<\/p>\n
\u201cSellers are still using it very well,\u201d said Ogunbona, who continues to buy his Styrofoam-packed meals.<\/p>\n
A global treaty on plastics<\/p>\n
In Geneva this week, countries including Nigeria are negotiating a treaty to end plastic pollution. Such talks broke down last year, with oil-producing countries opposed to any limits on plastic production. In large part, plastics are made from fossil fuels like oil and gas.<\/p>\n
Lagos generates at least 13,000 tons of waste daily, almost a fifth of which is plastics, officials have said. In the absence of a proper waste management system, most of it ends up in waterways, clogging canals, polluting beaches and contributing to devastating floods.<\/p>\n
Although the state government has promoted the ban on single-use plastics as a major step, watchdogs are skeptical.<\/p>\n
\u201cIts effectiveness is limited without strong enforcement, affordable alternatives for low-income vendors and meaningful improvements in the city\u2019s overwhelmed waste management systems,\u201d Olumide Idowu, a Lagos-based environmental activist, told The Associated Press.<\/p>\n
The Lagos state government did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n
Scraping off labels with razor blades<\/p>\n
With the quest for a better life driving millions of Nigerians to Lagos, some in the city are finding ways to manage the pollution. Recent years have seen a rise of private waste managers and sustainability groups helping to tackle the crisis.<\/p>\n
At a sorting site in Obalende, a bustling commercial suburb adjacent to the upscale Ikoyi neighborhood, two women with razor blades scraped labels from plastic soft drink bottles. They uncapped the bottles and threw them into different nets, ready to be compressed and sold for recycling.<\/p>\n
Competition has become tougher as more people join the work, the women said. The informal network of waste collectors sell to, or sort for, private waste management companies. They can make around around 5,000 naira ($3.26) a day.<\/p>\n
But far more work is needed.<\/p>\n
Manufacturers have a key role to play in tackling the plastic waste problem, according to Omoh Alokwe, co-founder of the Street Waste Company that operates in Obalende.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey need to … ensure that the plastics being produced into the environment are collected back and recycled,\u201d Alokwe said.<\/p>\n
Experts also call for a behavioral change among residents for the law banning single-use plastics to be effective.<\/p>\n
Lagos residents need alternatives to plastics, shop owner Ogunbona said. Otherwise, \u201cwe will keep using them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LAGOS: Nigerian shop manager Olarewanju Ogunbona says he uses Styrofoam and plastic packs at least five times a day \u2014 nothing unusual in the megacity of Lagos, one of the world\u2019s most plastics-polluted urban areas. The city\u2019s over 20 million people contributed 870,000 tons of the world\u2019s 57 million tons of plastic waste in 2024. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":85331,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85330"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85330\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85332,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85330\/revisions\/85332"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}