Challenges and prospects of plastic waste management in Nigeria

Abstract

The combined properties of low cost, lightweight, and resistance to chemicals and corrosion has increased the use of plastic materials for packaging and storage purposes in preference to other materials. Consequently, there is a continued increase in their proportion in domestic solid wastes worldwide as well as the concern of their impacts on the environment. Most developed and developing countries have put in place and continue to improve their plastic waste disposal, collection, and recycling methods to reduce these impacts. In Nigeria with a population of about 186 million, there are little or no available data on the use of plastic materials in relation to city populations, their disposal, collection, and recycling methods. There are a few numbers of plastic waste recycling companies in a fewer number of cities and disposal practices for the greater percentage of the plastic wastes that are not captured for recycling possess immediate and future danger for the environment. This work reviews the consumption of plastics, its waste generation, collection, and treatment in Nigeria and a few selected countries. The problems associated with inadequate management of the wastes were emphasized and recommendations were proffered to not only highlight research and investment opportunities that are inherent in plastic waste management in Nigeria, but also provide a background for the formulation of sustainable regulatory policies by the government to address the problems.

Plastic wastes: environmental hazard and instrument for wealth creation in Nigeria

“… Mechanical Recycling: this refers to the processing of plastics waste into secondary raw material or products without significantly changing the chemical structure of the material [ 40 ]. It is also the processing of plastic waste into products of different characteristics [ 41 ]. In 2020, Sustainable Packaging Coalition referred to Mechanical Recycling as the operations which attempt to recycle wastes from plastics materials through mechanical processes such as grinding, washing, separating, drying, re-granulating and compounding.…”

Physio-chemical characterization of municipal solid waste and its management in high-altitude urban areas of North-Western Himalayas

“…While, in Bandipora, the dumpsite has been created on the banks of Wular Lake, which is Asia's largest fresh lake. During rainfall, leachate seepages over time from aforesaid unprotected sites, which can contaminate the ground and surface water, respectively [21]. Also, the MSW was openly left to the environment, and it has become a source point of lousy odour, vector nuisance, and it may cause various health diseases due to the breeding of mosquitoes and flies.…”

“…Based on the characterization, it was revealed that biomethane plants could be another technique for waste treatment for each urban area of Kashmir (i.e., Baramulla, Kupwara, and Bandipora). Recycling centers with public-private partnership (PPP) can be introduced by involving the local informal sectors and encourage the public to follow the 5R's (i.e., reduce, reuse, recycle, recover and reject) system [21]. The inert material can be recycled and utilized for construction purposes.…”

‘Drinking and Dropping’: On Interacting with Plastic Pollution and Waste in South-Eastern Nigeria

“…Calls for a reduction in the volume of plastic produced remain controversial (Parker 2019) and Nigeria has yet to join other African countries in adopting policies on single use plastic products (Adam et al 2020) despite being among the top six importers and users of plastic (Babayemi et al 2019). The largest market sector for plastic resins is disposable packaging (Plastics Europe 2019) and in Nigeria the production and consumption of single-use plastics is growing (Duru, Ikpeama & Ibekwe 2019). An acute scarcity of potable water in rural and some urban parts of Nigeria (Nnaji, Eluwa & Nwoji 2013) mean that non-refillable 500ml plastic sachet bags of 'pure water' (Figures 1 and 2. )…”