Nigeria’s government offices stopped using single-use plastics as of June 25. The measure had been announced in January this year and has now come into force.
The Federal Ministry of Environment is discontinuing the use of single-use plastics at its headquarters and agencies in preparation for a country-wide ban in 2025.
"What the Federal government is doing is preparing the minds of Nigerians for what is to come and leading by example,” Reuters reported the country’s deputy minister of environment, Iziaq Salako, as saying.
Nigeria adopted a national policy on plastic waste management in 2020 which envisaged the ban by 2025.
Salako has now confirmed the ban will go ahead as scheduled, with materials affected including straws, cutlery, plastic bottles and small water sachets, which present a major issue for the country.
Nigeria is the only virgin plastic resin producer in the coastal areas of West Africa, according to a WACA programme report commissioned by the World Bank. The country is also Africa’s largest oil producer, with the oil and gas sector accounting for about 10% of GDP. Nigeria produced 498 kilo tonnes of virgin plastic resin in 2019 (322 kt PE, 101 kt PP, 75 kt PET).
Nigeria’s plastic consumption outstrips its production, however, with the country currently meeting almost two-thirds of demand for virgin resins through imports, according to World Bank data.
Less than 12% of plastic waste is recycled in Nigeria, according to the WACA report. The country has eight finished plastic waste recycling plants, with 18 others at various stages of completion. The remaining plastic waste goes to landfills and dumpsites.
Water sachets are one of the country’s largest sources of single use plastic waste. They are a common form of selling pre-filtered or sanitised water and are cheaper to produce than plastic bottles. Over 60 million plastic sachet water bags are consumed and disposed of daily in Nigeria, according to a 2020 research paper.