Experts have raised concerns about significant gaps in the enforcement of plastic waste neutrality policies, highlighting a disconnect between regulations and their practical implementation.

These gaps hinder efforts to curb plastic pollution and achieve broader sustainability goals.

Founder/Chief Executive Officer of Chanja Datti, Dr Olufunto Boroffice, yesterday, emphasised the need to implement the right framework and improve transparency around plastic neutrality and the Extended Producers Responsibility (EPR) scheme in the country.

She stressed that the potential of plastic neutrality, if properly enforced, is the right course of action in tackling the plastic waste crisis.

Boroffice, who spoke on the theme: “Plastic neutrality in Africa: Myth, marketing or measurable impact,” at a training for journalists, organised by Lagos Business School Sustainability Centre, in partnership with Nestle Nigeria in Lagos, stressed the need to stop the imbalance between the big producers and the smaller ones who are not part of the EPR initiative by encouraging them to join the scheme rather than limiting it to the fewer multinationals firms.

Also speaking on the challenges faced by operators in the recycling sector, Boroffice alluded to Plastics Recyclers Europe (PRE) message alert, which highlighted that the plastic recycling industry is facing imminent collapse, with projections indicating that by 2025, the volume of lost recycling capacity will have tripled since 2023—threatening European Union (EU) circularity goals and proper plastic waste management.

She noted the lack of demand for recyclates into new products; the continuous high operational and electricity prices, and the low price of virgin plastics, paired with low-priced imports, are the main reasons that impact the current and turbulent situation on the market.

Director of the Lagos Business School Sustainability Centre, Oreva Atanya, also stressed the need for support from the government for those in the plastic recycling value chain to further tackle the social-environmental menace of plastic pollution and create more jobs through the sector.