By Yemi Olakitan
Waste management professionals in Nigeria have said that the country’s residents don’t recycle enough, which is slowing down attempts to reduce global warming.
They also cautioned that this trend was dangerous for health outcomes in Africa’s most populous country.
A report from the United Nations Industrial Development Organization states that Nigeria produces approximately 32 million tonnes of garbage per year, of which 2.5 million tonnes are plastic.
Speaking at the BusinessDay Africa Business Convention in 2023, the garbage operators claimed that in order to bring about beneficial changes, early education and awareness are required.
Arese Lucia Onaghise, general secretary of the Food and Beverage Recycling Alliance, said, “We need to focus on climate education by teaching kids in primary and secondary schools how to manage the waste they make.”
She advised using trash compensation management organisations to persuade folks whose behaviours are difficult to modify.
“Government policy is also a key factor in reducing the amount of garbage entering the ecosystem.
Onaghise stated that Nigeria needed to take initiative.
Nigeria is one of the top 20 countries responsible for 83 percent of the entire amount of plastic garbage produced on land that ends up in the oceans.
A World Bank analysis estimates that each Nigerian produces 0.51 kg of waste every day.
By 2050, it is anticipated to increase to 107 million tonnes.
Ifeanyi Ochonogor, CEO of Eterra Technologies, said, “We have to keep awareness and sensitivity on how to start rescuing this situation.”
He claimed that because Nigerian landfills are filled with mountains of technological garbage, the focus should generally be on waste.
Ochonogor declared that they were harmful to both the nature and our health.
For the sake of the planet’s and the human race’s existence, we must broaden our thoughts.