Government to establish 28 plastic recycling plants in 2012

Government to establish 28 plastic recycling plants in 2012

The Nigerian government has said that it plans to establish 28 plastic recycling plants in selected states.

At a press briefing on the planned recycling plants, in Abuja on Wednesday, the Director, Pollution Control, Department, Federal Ministry of Environment, Dr. Ogundayo Dada, said that the initiative was aimed at combatting the menace of plastic materials to the environment.

“The 28 plastic recycling facilities will be established in some selected states to control the volume of plastic waste in major cities across the country", he said.

Dada, who declined to name the states, however, said that the project would commence in August 2012.

Boosting environmental sustainability

He said that the project was also part of the government's intervention to boost environmental sustainability.

He said that government had also instituted the community-based waste management programme to encourage private sector participation in solving the nation’s waste management problems at the community level.

Fighting pollution  

Dada further told NAN that government had initiated an Integrated Waste Management Facility (IWMF) project, consisting of  a material recovery facility centre, composting plant; incinerator and landfill.

The project, he said, was being executed through the public private partnership arrangement, and aimed at solving the nation's pollution.

On other initiatives by the department, the director said that it signed an MoU in 2010 with the key stakeholders on the Strategic Approach to International Chemical Management (SAICM) for the effective management of chemicals in the country.

He expressed optimism that the MoU, would enhance efforts at protecting the Nigerian environment and the citizenry from the adverse effects of hazardous chemicals.

It would also help the stakeholders to develop and implement strategies to reduce and eliminate the risk associated with the handling of a wide range of chemicals, including pesticides.

He identified increased industrial and socio-economic activities as factors responsible for the pollution explosion, especially in the urban centres of the country.

In his words: “the result of these human activities accounted for the backlog of waste dotting public places thereby leading to blocked drainage systems, flooding as well as a filthy environment, with the attendant health hazards.”

Dada called on the government to develop a national policy on solid waste management to boost efforts at checking environmental challenges.

 NAN/Williams