HAZARDS OF PLASTICS LITTER

It’s time to control the reckless use of plastic materials

Scientists have raised global concern that plastics pose unimaginable danger to humanity and may reach crisis levels unless deliberate actions are taken to reverse the trend. The warning is particularly important for Nigeria since it is believed that plastic bags that are used daily can take between 10 to a thousand years to decompose, while plastic bottles can take 450 years or more. Yet, because single-use plastics are light, strong, can be shaped easily and cheap to produce, they litter the entire national landscape. In 2018, Nigeria was estimated to have discharged around 200,000 tonnes of plastic waste into the ocean per year, while its annual plastics production with a projection that it would grow to 523,000 tonnes by next year. As hazardous as that is for the future of the country, not much attention is being paid to the problem.

According to experts, the process of manufacturing plastics and its disposal through burning/incineration is harmful to workers and that it does not decompose makes farming cumbersome and kills livestock. Also, studies show that single-use plastics are harmful to the environment and have suggested that manufacturers of plastics can switch to reusable products because single-use plastics’ waste can take up to a thousand years to decompose in landfills/dumpsites. Eighty per cent of litters, according to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), are plastics, and they may constitute more of foreign materials in the sea than marine mammals by year 2050. This would eventually lead to the destruction of sea life, and adversely alter the ecosystem and human race. The Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF) believes the disposal of plastic waste needs to be handled with urgency and that everyone has a critical role to play in mitigating the issue at the household, national, regional, and global levels.

With worldwide awareness and action for the protection of the environment, there is an urgent need for government at all levels in the country to trigger actions that would control the production and use of plastics that are not reusable or cannot decompose. Nigeria’s environment is indeed polluted by all manner of plastics–from the straw for sipping beverages to those used for packaging and storage. The nagging question that keeps cropping up is, what can be done about the menace that neither the society nor the authorities seem to be paying attention to?

Every household or office or neighbourhood in the country has various types of plastics that are not recycleable/reusable and which at end-of-life are littered on the streets, caught in fences and trees, dumped in drains, rivers and lagoons, the ocean and all manner of places where they cannot biodegrade (decompose). Every year, the federal government only perfunctorily ‘mark’ the World Environment Day without bringing some of these issues that impact on the future of our country into public discourse.

The government needs to take concrete actions to protect the environment and rid it of plastics as some African countries have done by placing a ban on plastic bags, the most commonly used form of plastics. Some of the African countries that have banned plastic bags include Benin Republic, Cameroon, Chad, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Morocco, Mozambique, Malawi, Niger, Rwanda, Madagascar, Senegal, Gabon, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Tanzania, Tunisia and Kenya while Botswana and South Africa introduced high levies on plastic bags. This has led to many retailers charging a fee on plastic bags and consequently a reduction in its use in both countries.

It is not enough to join the World Economic Forum’s Global Plastic Action Partnership (GPAP) as we did in January. Nigeria should also take a positive position on the eradication of plastic pollution in the overall interest of our people and future generations.