Recycling Alliance in Symbolic Ocean Clean-up to Mark World’s Ocean Day

Members of the Food and Beverage Recycling Alliance, FBRA, have held a symbolic beach cleanup exercise to commemorate this year’s World Ocean Day.

Led by the current chair, Ziad Maalouf, the beach cleanup, which took place at Elegushi Beach, Lagos, was adopted as a springboard for encouraging more sustainable practices around the country’s ecosystem. With member-companies gathered, the beach clean-up exercise engaged attendees in a series of activities to remove plastic debris and other pollutants from the environs.

FBRA’s participation in the global commemoration models the company’s commitment to protecting and preserving the environment from post-consumer packaging material. In step with the alliance’s mission, FBRA is placing priority on influencing the management of plastic waste and the environmental footprints of entities across the food and beverage industry.

Speaking at the event, Maalouf, the chairman of the Alliance and Managing Director at SBC Nigeria, said: “the journey of a thousand miles starts with one step – and the journey to a green Nigeria starts with cleaning one spot. This beach clean-up event is in alignment with our commitment to environmental stewardship in Nigeria. Our environment holds the fabric of our society together, and our dependence on it is undeniable. We must move from a linear economy to a circular economy that protects and drives profit within the Nigerian economy. This involves creating investments for a sustainable future, working with local recyclers, and preserving the profit from those streams within the country.”

One of FBRA’s key foci is to further the industry’s alignment with the NESREA operational guidelines for the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) as well as the United Nations’ sustainable development goals to address climate action, life on land, life below water, responsible consumption and production, and other pressing themes.

Since 2012, members of the FBRA have set ambitious goals to support the circular economy and enhance its recycling infrastructure. By actively participating in FBRA and other industry initiatives, members aim to lead by example and inspire collaborative action for a sustainable future.

The Executive Secretary of the FBRA, Agharese Onaghise, who emphasised the importance of collaboration in tackling waste management and pollution, said: “Members of the FBRA have joined forces to address these issues as part of their extended producer responsibility. This event is aligned with the global theme of this year’s World Environment Day “Solutions for Plastic Pollution” as a driver to collectively address the menace of plastic pollution. We are excited to have 29 members of the FBRA from the food and beverage industry contributing to solve the issues that affect our environment and ourselves, supporting the collection of the post-consumer waste. We must continue to encourage these practices, ensuring they become ingrained in our culture.”

Member-companies represented at this year’s beach cleanup included SBC Nigeria Limited, Nigeria Breweries Plc, The LaCasera Company Plc, Nestle, Guinness Nigeria Plc, CHI Limited, UAC Foods, Nigerian Bottling Company, CWAY Foods, Prima Corporation Limited, International Breweries Limited, Nestle Nigeria Plc, and Tetrapak West Africa.

The Food and Beverage Recycling Alliance (FBRA) is a non-profit industry collaboration platform set up in 2018 by a Memorandum of Understanding with the objective to galvanise responsible players in the food and beverage industry to support and scale up post-consumer waste collection, buyback schemes and recycling programmes. The Alliance is poised to implement exemplary programmes, which will help preserve our environment, ignite innovation, create jobs and entrepreneurial opportunities for repurposing of packaging waste.