Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Environment has set up a ‘Circular Nigeria Committee’ following a summit on environmental management on Jan. 11 and 12.
The committee will be responsible for implementing the country’s circular economy roadmap, which aims ‘to drive Nigeria’s path to sustainable and inclusive green growth by 2030 (medium-term) and 2050 (long-term)’. One of the committee’s action plans is to phase out single use plastics, according to a ministry statement released at the end of the two-day summit. The Federal Ministry of Environment will lead the charge by discontinuing the use of single-use plastics at its headquarters and agencies.
“The retreat also agreed to discontinue the use of single use plastic within the Federal Ministry of Environment and its Agencies to drive a culture of waste reduction,” the statement reads. “In addition, staff of the Ministry and its agencies were requested to demonstrate leadership by example by implementing other personal climate actions in their environment.”
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 sanitized 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.