The call on policy-makers to immediately ban single-use plastics has been re-echoed by participants at a two-day capacity-building workshop in Lagos for media practitioners to address plastic pollution in Nigeria by understanding the United Nations (UN) Plastic Treaty Process.

All stakeholders at the event organised by the Pan African Vision for the Environment (PAVE), a member of the Global Alliance for Incineration Alternatives (GAIA) and Break Free From Plastics (BFFP), with the support of the Global Greengrants Fund (GGF), were unanimous on the need to ban single-use plastics through a phased approach.

They suggested source segregation of waste for easy evacuation by refuse managers.
President of PAVE, Anthony Akpan, in his keynote on The Plastic Age, noted that the UN was negotiating a treaty to solve the plastic crisis.

According to him, the majority of African countries do not produce plastics; hence, they should be more ambitious in calling for a reduction in plastic production.

Referring to Ana Rocha of GAIA, Akpan said big players in the plastic industry also fight against the move to end plastic use around the globe.

While stressing the need to go hard on defaulters of the plastic legislation, he alleged that Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) still use plastics despite the ban by the Federal Government.

On the way forward, he said there should be infrastructure for the segregation of waste, and an institutional framework to help waste disposers on this.

For Victor Fagbumi of Sustainable Research and Action for Environmental Development (SRADev) Nigeria, plastics have come to stay; hence, efforts geared towards reducing them must be strategic.