‘Nigeria’s plastic waste has potential to unlock $10 billion’

Mr Adamu Garba is the Chief Operating Officer, Nigeria Climate Innovation Centre (NCIC). In this interview with CHINEDUM UWAEGBULAM, he threw more light on the country’s plastic crisis and explained how a circular economy will tackle waste, create jobs, and fuel economic growth, as well as unlock $10 billion investment in the environment sector.

Nigeria Climate Innovation Centre (NCIC) recently released a report on the circular economy. How beneficial is the circular economy model to the country?
The circular economy has its advantages. They’re all positive. If you try to look for any negatives for the circular economy, I don’t think you’ll find one. It is beneficial across all ramifications. Rather than having plastic waste littered all around the states, it is collected and converted to wealth to improve people’s lives.

The only issue is that we are not collecting and recycling enough. There’s not much we can do because there are fewer projects and interventions compared to the quantum of plastics that still exist. We’re still talking about waste on land, what of those in the oceans? It’s another kettle of fish. The fact is that we’re only recycling less than 10 per cent of the 2.5 million tonnes of plastic.

If you compare us with other countries like Germany where plastic waste is money, they have something like a machine, where you drop your waste; it weighs it and gives you money. So, waste is money.

Everybody is embracing circularity around the world because of the economic viability of recycling plastics. I mean jobs! When you find waste all around you, and that waste can be ploughed back into something resourceful, that’s progress. When you have about 10 tonnes of plastic waste, it can be converted into plates and bags. That is a circular economy.

Before now, the Federal Executive Council approved legislation on plastic waste management, which was aimed at developing a circular economy in the country. With the resolve to ban plastics, there seems no consistency in policy. Why is it so?
One of the challenges that we have as a country over time is not the policies that have been created, but the actionable steps to follow them through. It is a challenge that the policies around the circular economy have not been followed through.

However, this report shows the opportunities and benefits of a circular economy and indicates that it works because there’s a value chain that exists in it. The government needs to provide the required amount of support, which includes the technical, financial, environmental, and structural support for the value chain to continue to exist so that jobs can be created and people can be lifted out of poverty.

Those who have embraced it are making money off it including those collecting plastic as pickers. Many of them know how much it’s worth and use it to feed their families. People earn hundreds of thousands every month. They earn more than a lot of people that went to school. What we need is a bit of structure around the process.

Don’t you think the proposed plan to ban plastic is a threat to circular economy adoption in the country? To what extent are the plastic producers involved in the drive for circular economy?
I would say that these producers have been responsible right from time. They have created a lot of projects, interventions, and policies within themselves, which is their extended producer responsibility. It’s a collective responsibility and not about any particular set of people.

On the roads, you find people driving and when they are done drinking, they throw it out the window. That’s not the producers’ problem. It’s a collective problem and that’s why advocacy and training are key. You have to build people’s capacities to understand that there are environmental and economic consequences to disposing of plastic waste responsibly. The reason why other countries have got it right is because there is the right system and infrastructure to dispose of responsibly. There are plastic banks and bins everywhere. They sort their waste from the source.

The producers are at the forefront of ensuring plastic waste recycling. It’s not because of any policy. I don’t think a green tax or plastic ban is the way to go. Let’s use this problem and create an opportunity out of it. It’s all about embracing the challenge and creating opportunities out of it. And there’s so much to come out of it. From about five tonnes of plastic, you can create about 1,500 jobs. The circular economy is sustainable, viable and it’s a value chain that feeds itself because the money spreads from the picker to the aggregator and recycler.

Do you foresee the report making impact on policymakers that support a plastic ban and green taxation policy in the country?
I think the timing couldn’t be better than now because this is when the whole mantra within the government cycle to impose green taxation policy in the country is loud. We thought of putting up a report that shows the national benefits from the economic, social and environmental angles while stressing the need to amplify the advantages of a circular economy and looking at indicators like unemployment, the macroeconomic problem of unemployment and underemployment in the country.

Once you ban a waste material that keeps the value chain, you will end up dismantling the system and getting employed people out of jobs, which would affect the economic viability of the circular economy model. Nigeria’s plastic waste market today is worth between $5 to $10 billion.

If we could embrace the circular economy as a nation; you can imagine how much we would contribute to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).