There is need for major bottling companies in Nigeria to accept responsibility for the full life cycle impacts of their products in order to curb the number of plastic containers constituting an environmental hazard in the country.

This is the position of Dr. Leslie Adogame, the Executive Director, Sustainable Research and Action for Environmental Development (SRADev Nigeria), during the official launch of the Plastic Brand Audit Report (2019-2024), a five-year exercise undertaken in alignment with the #BreakFreeFromPlastic Movement globally to document corporate accountability in plastic pollution.

In his remarks at a media event on Friday, June 13, in Lagos, as part of activities to commemorate the 2025 World Environment Day, Dr. Adogame noted that Plastic Brand Audit Report (2019-2024) is aimed at raising awareness about the threats posed by plastic pollution to human health and the environment. It also aims to support national and global efforts to end plastic pollution in line with this year’s World Environment Day themed “Beat Plastic Pollution”.

He said: “Globally, an estimated 11 million tonnes of plastic waste leak into aquatic ecosystems each year, while microplastics accumulate in the soil from sewage and landfills, due to the use of plastics in agricultural products. The annual social and environmental cost of plastic pollution ranges between $300 billion and $600 billion.

“Since 2019, SRADev Nigeria through the Plastic Brand Audit empowered volunteers and waste pickers to identify, sort, and track plastic waste in various communities. This initiative helps pinpoint the companies most responsible for plastic pollution and strengthens advocacy efforts.” 

He said the Plastic Brand Audit Report (2019-2024) is conducted in partnership with local and international organisations under the Break Free From Plastic movement and contributes data to a global database used to demand corporate and policy accountability.

The report lists the top 10 global polluters, brands cutting across soft drinks, sachet water, alcoholic drinks and packaging materials, to include Coca-Cola Company, PepsiCo, Rite Foods (Bigi), CWAY Group, Mr. V Water, Viju Industries, La Casera Company, Nirvana Table Water, Adbuk (sachet water), and Seaman’s Schnapps (Intercontinental Distillers Ltd). 

“On a five-year average of the waste characterisation PET bottles covers 55%, 25% of the bottles are unbranded while Low-Density Polyethylene (LDPE) is 10%. On the other hand, Food Packaging accounted for 89%–99% of total plastic pollutants audited in 2023 and 2024.”

The Executive Director thereby called on the top polluters highlighted in the Plastic Brand Audit Report (2019-2024) to lead the way in revealing how much single-use plastic they use, setting clear, public, measurable targets on how they will reduce the quantity of single-use plastic items they produce, and finally to completely reinvent their product delivery systems to avoid creating more plastic pollution.

Adogame stressed: “People all over the world are rejecting single-use plastic and consumer goods companies are feeling the pressure. So much so that many of them have made commitments that they claim will make their products more sustainable but largely protect the outdated throwaway business model that got us into this mess in the first place.

“Efforts by some top three polluters underscore how far the consumer goods sector must go. Nestlé for example has committed to making all its packaging recyclable or reusable by 2025 but has no clear plans for reducing the total amount of single-use plastic (SUP) it puts into the world, and the company sells over a billion products a day in single-use packaging.

“Coca Cola has recently unveiled a single-use plastic bottle using plastic collected from the oceans, and in 2009 they promoted a plastic bottle made from plants. None of these products will stop or reduce Coke’s growing plastic pollution and reinforce the myth that single-use plastic can be sustainable.

“And finally, PepsiCo joined the Alliance to End Plastic Waste that brings together plastic producers, oil companies and other consumer goods companies to promote beach cleanups and improve recycling as a way to ensure future demand for petrochemicals to make more plastic. Efforts like these, and others focused on making packaging recyclable or compostable, do not get to the heart of the problem and all but guarantee the plastic pollution crisis will grow worse. In Nigeria today, existing companies’ commitments are simply not enough.”

While commending the efforts of the Lagos State Government through the Ministry of Environment on the plan to fully enforce the ban on single-use plastics (Styrofoam food packs, disposable polystyrene cups, plastic straws, plastic cutlery, and nylon bags thinner than 40 microns) from July 1, 2025, the Executive Director of SRADev further called for the inclusion of PET bottles, water sachets, or nylon bags thicker than 40 microns, which cannot be managed through an Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) framework.

In his submission, Victor Fabunmi, SRADev Nigeria’s Project Manager, noted that the main essence of Plastic Brand Audit Report is to raise awareness about the health effects of plastic pollution, provide data on pollutants by identifying and hold corporations accountable for plastic pollution as well as urging further action to eliminate single-use plastics in Nigeria.

He, however, urged government to enforce EPR legislation by strengthening and strictly enforcing EPR laws to hold brands accountable for their plastic waste, phasing out the most polluting and non-recyclable plastics identified in the audit and implement clear and standardising recycling labels to educate consumers and facilitate sorting, providing tax breaks or subsidies for sustainable packaging, recycling innovations, and zero-waste business models and also recognising and formalising the role of waste pickers in national waste management plans.

Dr. Essien Nsuabia, Head, Waste Management Research and Policy of Lagos Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) in his remarks commend SRADev-Nigeria for playing an active role in sustainable waste management in the country, 

He noted that, with proper plastic waste management, lots of revenue can be generated considering the amount of plastic being generated on a daily basis.

“There will be so much value derived from it. And there will be so much job creation, and the environment will be better taken care of. If you look at the waste characterisation for the economy within the Lagos ecosystem, marine ecosystem, you see so much floating plastic wastes everywhere,” added Nsuabia.

By Ajibola Adedoye