What the Lagos State Plastic Ban Tells Us About Waste in Nigeria

In October 2024, the Lagos State government announced a ban on single-use plastics, styrofoam, sachet water, and PET bottles (although the last two items have since been struck off the ban list). This policy is the newest in the encyclopedia of policies by various administrations at the different levels of government to eliminate indiscriminate waste disposal. Unfortunately, these policies have failed woefully.

Indiscriminate waste disposal (the improper and uncontrolled disposal of waste in undesignated areas) has persisted for over a decade in Nigeria. Even with the existence of frameworks like the National Policy on Environment, National Environmental Sanitation Policy, National Policy on Solid Waste Management, and Nigerian National Municipal Waste Management Policy, nothing seems to work. We just end up caught in a cycle of broken promises and a waste problem that has spiralled out of control.

Why?

In fairness, waste is a complex problem that can't be solved by the government alone. Continuously implementing new policies and regulations won’t cut it because it only tackles the political part of the puzzle. There are socioeconomic and institutional aspects to consider that broaden the scope beyond simply indiscriminate disposal. In my mind, the bigger issue is how we handle waste.

In this article, I look at Nigeria's waste issues, proffer solutions to the political and institutional aspects, and dig into the potential of Web3 regenerative finance (ReFi) solutions to address the socioeconomic aspect.

The single-use plastic ban in Lagos

On October 3rd, 2024, the Punch newspaper announced that the Lagos state government planned to ban the circulation of single-use plastics and sachet water from January 2025. Tokunbo Wahab, the Commissioner for Environment and Water Resources, explained that the ban is a measure by the state government to establish plastic use policies to sustainably manage plastic waste and ensure a healthy and safe environment.

As expected, there were reactions to the ban. Mosaku Ololade, the Lagos chairperson of the Association for Table Water Producers of Nigeria, pointed out that the ban policy would financially jeopardise the lives of over 2000 water producers and over 10,000 workers in the water production sector. Dr Inyene Nkanta, an expert in circular economy, argued that the ban is extreme given the lack of immediate alternatives and the short time to develop and execute new solutions.

See, Nigeria produces 3.5 million tonnes of plastic waste annually. Lagos State contributes over 25% of that (870,000 tonnes). It's common to see drainages blocked with plastic waste and roads flooding during heavy downpours. Torrents of plastic waste end up on streets, residential areas, and even water bodies. There is no disputing the ban as a solution to a desperate problem. The issue is the second-order consequences that come with it.

Waste policies in Nigeria rarely consider the socioeconomic impact. Even if they mean well, they end up causing more problems. For instance, replacing plastic cutlery with steel cutlery will increase the price of street food, while banning PET bottles means regular occurrences of bottled drinks with rusted finishes and caps.

Understanding the waste issue

Illegal dumping has become the order of the day. As of 2022, over 175 million Nigerians live in an unclean environment. Past trends have shown that the figure only goes up. Regulations are ineffective, while fines exist only in theory. It’s so bad that people boldly dump waste in places with signboards warning against such acts.

The effects of this problem are devastating. Research has shown that a litre of water from the Osun River contains over 20,000 pieces of microplastics. A study on the same river indicated the presence of plastic materials in snails that dwell there. Sediment samples collected from four beaches in Lagos also contained a high percentage of microplastics. And on it goes. I could dedicate a 10,000-word article to the impact of waste in Nigeria and it still wouldn’t be enough.

How has it become this bad?

• Lack of proper waste infrastructure - Growing up, almost every street I knew had a waste container that was cleared every week. These days, I have to walk an early 30-minute distance to the closest dumpster, which is about 11 streets away from where I live, to throw my waste.
• Unauthorised dump sites - Given the inconvenience of disposing waste properly, people resort to illegal dumping. It starts with a small amount of waste in a designated location that gradually grows into a heap. Eventually, people become brazen enough to dump their waste with impunity.
• The 5Rs in reality - The de-facto solution for waste handling has always been the 5Rs: refuse, reduce, reuse, repurpose, and recycle. Results are mixed at best. Refusing and reducing single-use plastic usage is in fact more expensive for the average Nigerian, while recycling is almost non-existent. Conversely, Nigerians are culturally more likely to reuse and repurpose items. A Nigerian mother is less likely to throw away a beverage container knowing she can use it to store food condiments.
• Ineffective recycling - Recycling should come before disposal, but the opposite is true due to the unavailability of waste merchants. Waste merchant are difficult to track down so people end up disposing of their recyclable waste.
• Delay in clearing authorised dumps - Due to inadequate manpower and resources, it can take the responsible agencies months to clear designated dumpsites, leading to an overflow. Whenever there’s a heavy downpour, the water carries the overflowing waste into available water bodies or scatters it across different locations.
• Local government negligence - People look up to the state and federal governments yet fail to understand that the policies and regulations from those levels cannot be effectively implemented if the local government is not aligned. This is why implemented waste policies may hold more weight in a state capital but no weight in other local government areas of the state.
• Poor waste education - Most Nigerians are ignorant about proper waste handling. Regardless of their positive attitude toward the environment, children constantly internalise their parents’ wrong methods of waste handling because the approved curriculum has nothing related to waste education.

As you can see, the issue of waste has become so complex that a solution is beyond reach.

Where we go from here

While it may seem bleak, the issue of improper waste handling can be reversed. It will take time, for one, but it will also require the simultaneous implementation of political, institutional, and socioeconomic solutions.

Political solutions

Unfortunately, the probability of implementing any of the following political solutions is near-zero because of corruption and unnecessary bureaucracy. That said, if the problem starts threatening those in office, there are some tangible steps that can be taken.

• Provision of proper waste infrastructure - Providing dumpsters for one in every two streets in the country would go a long way. Adequate waste infrastructure makes it convenient for people to dispose of their waste properly and no one would dump waste illegally if the closest dumpster were a minute away from their homes.
• Introducing fines for unauthorised dump sites in communities - The government should delegate the duties of overseeing the clearing of unauthorised dumps to traditional rulers and post fines if the dumps aren’t cleared. This way, the traditional leaders will implement measures to ensure that community members do not dump waste illegally.
• Provision of adequate funding and resources for waste management agencies - Proper waste handling is a priority for efficient urban development and should be treated as such. The federal and state governments should provide the concerned MDAs with the funding, resources, and manpower to manage generated waste efficiently.

Institutional solutions

Institutional solutions are also unlikely due to corruption, however there is hope that the prospect of government contracts will provide the necessary motivation.

• Quick and timely incineration of disposed waste - It's important that the agencies responsible for waste management are financially motivated to clear dumping sites regularly, say a week for urban areas and two weeks for rural areas. This timely action will prevent the overflowing of waste and, subsequently, the washing of the waste into water bodies.
• Active lookouts for defaulters - Institutions must work hand in hand with traditional leaders to provide incentives to local vigilantes to protect against illegal dumping. It's a common legend in Cross River State, Nigeria, that Donald Duke, then governor, empowered local vigilantes to actively seek defaulters and take them to the police. I don't know how true the legend is, but Cross River State was the cleanest state in Nigeria throughout his tenure.
• Review school curriculums to include climate education - Ministry of Education and its affiliated parastatals must work to introduce climate and environmental education in schools. With the potential knowledge from these subjects, it's easy for the students to unlearn their bad waste management practices and correct their parents at home, too.
• Carrying out regular waste management sensitisation programs in communities - The task of regularly enlightening communities and villagers shouldn’t be left to NGOs when it is, in fact, the job of government agencies and institutions. A partnership between these institutions and active NGOs will go a long way in sensitising the masses.

Socioeconomic solutions

Socioeconomic solutions, in the face of government and institutional inaction, have the potential to be the most impactful. Take the Morit International School in Lagos. It made the innovative decision to allow parents to pay fees with plastic waste instead of cash. With proper collection infrastructure, this would be a sustainable solution. Sadly, the school collects too much recyclable plastic for the infrastructure to handle and it may be forced to shut down.

One area worth exploring is how ReFi solutions can help inculcate proper waste handling practices through incentives, community, and governance.

• Provision of incentives for sustainable waste management practices - Nigerians love financial incentives. I recently coordinated PESATHON, a two-week environmental cleanup and climate education initiative on campus. With support from the DeCleanup Network, I introduced an incentive to reward the most consistent participants with USDGLO. Since the event started, we haven't had fewer than 20 people show up. With the right application of incentives, we can implement practices like regular community cleanups, composting, and recycling at a much larger scale.
• Creating a waste recycling network - ReFi solutions like Atlantis can be used to create a P2P network of community waste merchants to collect and store recyclable waste for resell to recycling companies. The availability of these waste merchants and the thought of making money from selling off waste is enough incentive to ensure that people sort their waste for recyclable materials before disposing.
• Providing refund-deposits - A refund-deposit system is one in which consumers get a refund whenever they return recyclable materials such as bottles and cans. We can integrate convert shops and supermarkets into P2P waste recycling networks to give consumers coupons worth the price of the returned waste, which they can cash in.
• Setting up local waste management committees - With the right incentives, setting up a local group to oversee the waste management in a community will prove more effective than waiting on the federal and state governments to remind local governments to do their jobs. Such a committee would ensure proper waste disposal, eliminate illegal dumping, and report defaulters to the traditional council. It can even create job opportunities in the local communities.

Conclusion

I once heard a speaker at a community dialogue describe improper waste handling as a terminal disease that kills slowly and is never discovered until it's too late. With recent discoveries on microplastics and their deadly effects on the human body, it's difficult not to agree with the above description. While I’m highly sceptical about the feasibility of the political and institutional solutions due to the high rate of institutionalised corruption in the country, I’m very much confident about the success of the socioeconomic solutions because they appeal directly to the local community members who stand to gain a lot financially, environmentally, and healthwise. Improper waste handling is a menace in the country, and ReFi solutions are as good a place as any to start tackling it.

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