Sustainable Research and Action for Environmental Development (SRADev) Nigeria, and the Association of Waste Pickers of Lagos (ASWOL) have called on Manufacturers to start designing commodities with recyclable materials.
This call formed part of the resolutions from the 2024 Brand Audit and clean-up exercise undertaken by SRADev Nigeria recently, in collaboration with ASWOL.
According to a statement in the 2024 Brand Audit Promoters, “Too often, products are designed without considering what happens to them once they’re no longer useful, resulting in high levels of pollution within communities,” they stated, adding that manufacturers should use materials that are easily recyclable/biodegradable, design products to be easily disassembled for recycling, and adopt recycled materials into the manufacturing process of new products.
“Producers have a responsibility to ensure that their products don’t end up polluting our environment. Efforts such as collaborating with waste pickers and setting up efficient collection and recycling systems are also long overdue. These systems should also be easily accessible to all to make it easy for consumers to dispose of their waste responsibly.”
The audit, which held at Tarmac, Oluwole Housing Estate, Ogba in Lagos State, and featured 23 participants, listed the top five polluting parent companies to include the Coca-Cola Company, La Casera Company, Grand Oak Limited, Intercontinental Distillers Limited and Heineken (makers of Fayrouz).
The exercise, which audited 1,706 plastics and in respect of which food packages (bottle/sachet components) constituted about 89% of the plastic brand pollutants identified, established the top five individual polluting brands as Nirvana, Adbuk (sachet water), Coca-cola, Seaman’s Schnapps, and Safrika (sachet water).
In addition to significant plastic waste generated from well-established brands, the audit found that the single-use plastic packaging of sachet water and alcoholic drinks were notable contributors to pollution within the community.
The audit also identified majority of plastics as bottle labels and PET (polyethylene terephthalate), while the least amounts of plastic types were PS (polystyrene) and HDPE (high-density polyethylene).
Apart from raising awareness about health effects of plastic pollution and providing data on plastic polluting the environment to help identify the companies responsible, other objectives of the audit were listed to include: holding corporate organisations accountable for plastic pollution, and urging further action to eliminate single-use plastics through regulatory action in Nigeria.
