By Abbas Nazil
The National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency, National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency, has unveiled plans to formally integrate informal waste workers into the Extended Producer Responsibility programme.
Through a Cooperative-Led Model designed to promote inclusiveness, environmental sustainability, and economic empowerment.
Director General of NESREA, Innocent Barikor, disclosed this during a virtual stakeholder sensitization programme organized for participants in the EPR value chain.
Barikor explained that the initiative seeks to bridge long-standing gaps in the EPR system by bringing informal waste collectors, recyclers, and sorters into organized cooperative structures that can provide access to governance, financing opportunities, environmental compliance support, and social protection schemes.
According to him, the Cooperative-Led EPR Model is designed to strengthen the country’s waste management framework while ensuring that small-scale waste actors are no longer excluded from national environmental programmes.
He noted that the model would enable informal workers to gain legal identity through recognized cooperatives, benefit from digital inclusion platforms, and participate in national environmental data systems that improve accountability and traceability within the recycling ecosystem.
The NESREA boss further stated that the initiative goes beyond environmental management, describing it as a social and economic transformation strategy capable of improving the livelihoods of thousands of informal waste workers across the country.
He added that through digital onboarding systems, cooperative passports, financial literacy programmes, equipment leasing opportunities, health insurance, and enterprise support services, informal operators would gradually transition into the formal economy.
Chief Steward of the Nigeria Environmental Stewardship Cooperative Society, Peter Ayim, said the framework offers Nigeria a scalable pathway toward building an inclusive circular economy.
Ayim explained that the model addresses several structural challenges confronting informal waste workers, including lack of formal recognition, poor economic conditions, occupational risks, inadequate health and safety protection, and social exclusion.
He cited countries such as Brazil, Colombia, India, and South Africa, alongside member states of the European Union, as examples where cooperative-led systems have successfully integrated informal waste actors into structured EPR frameworks.
Stakeholders present at the meeting included the Recyclers Association of Nigeria, Food and Beverage Recycling Alliance, E-Waste Producers Responsibility Organization of Nigeria, and Rural Women Energy Security, among other players in the recycling and environmental sustainability sector.
