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In a bid to achieve circular economy through sustainable waste generation and management, the Lagos State governmen said that it has embarked on arrays of strategy to reduce the metrics tonnes of daily waste generation to the barest minimum.
Speaking at a stakeholders’ engagement on circular economy and building environmental resilience, the General Manager, Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency, Dr Dolapo Fasawe and the Chief Resilience Officer, Lagos State Resilience Office, (LASRO), Folayinka Dania, said that efforts are on top gear to ensure that about 14,000 tonnes of waste generated daily in Lagos are put into good use.
The experts who spoke on the theme of the stakeholders’ engagement titled: “Facilitating the Transition into Circular Economy and the Building of an Envronmentally Resilient Lagos State”, said that plastic are not totally bad product but the improper disposal constitutes nuisance.
According to Dr. Fasawe, Nigeria is accustomed to a linear economy, which means one way, and that a circular economy would allow everyone to put everything to good use by ensuring that waste is not wasted.
She said: “It is an economy where, from conception, you’re already thinking sustainability and you want to know what your end product would be. Plastic is not totally a bad thing, but when it is not properly disposed of, it clogs our drainage system and causes flooding. So, we are saying when you use plastic, reuse it and recycle it. You can use it up to ten times, and there are off takers in this country; if you need a list, come to LASEPA. “
On her part, Dania said the circular economy is about reducing waste to the barest minimum. She said that the program is around mobilizing stakeholders to key into the state’s agenda on circular economy because it is not something government can do alone.
“All stakeholders must be involved in this process and this program is about facilitating that transition, telling people what it is we plan to do as a state and getting their insights and contributions on how the state can do this better and ways that we can work together.
“What we trying to do is tilted towards ensuring that no waste gets to dumpsite but as it is first things first, we are saying can we reduce plastic waste which would reduce waste in landfills, flooding and some emissions that goes into the atmosphere from burning of these plastics and overall a clean air for the city and a healthy living environment for all.
“We have launched an Eko Circular podcast to educate people on circular economy and what they can do. We have equally launched a Lagos circular challenge which is supposed to help people think about how they can help Lagos to become more environmentally friendly in terms of reducing waste,” she said.
Executive Director, Nondunna Limited, Nonny Ugboma, said Lagos, with a population of over 20 million, is the right place to promote circularity, saying millions of Naira worth of raw materials are being wasted on a daily basis in waste generation.
She said:”We have been called upon to work on the project of facilitating circular economy and resilience in Lagos State. Lagos state is already ahead of the game when it comes to promoting circular economy popularity. it is a state that has the agenda and they are doing great things along that path.
“What we are doing is to facilitate the integration of different things that are happening in the circular economy space and environmental resilience space. Essentially, there are four deliverable for us, we are going to promote the circularity gap working with the agencies and we are also going to produce some contents that will help the leveraging and to educate and inform, get collaborations across the state on circular economy and resilience,” she explained.
