Between those who think climate change is a myth, to others who simply cannot connect the dots between environmental pollution and climate change, are a vast majority who are just too poor to care.
The poor do not really concern themselves with the depletion of the ozone layer or the dangers of single-use plastics; they wake up each day preoccupied with thoughts of survival.
Behind the indifference of most Nigerians to environmental degradation is poverty.
With a population of over 200 million people, Nigeria seems like a good destination for business as it has a large market. The problem with that is, almost half of the population are either too poor to afford essential goods and services or can now afford less of their usual consumption basket.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in the “2019 Poverty and Inequality in Nigeria” report highlighted that 40 percent of Nigeria’s total population, or almost 83 million people, live below the country’s poverty line of N137,430 ($381.75) per year.
Big problems in small packets
Businesses faced with reduced sales as a result of falling aggregate demand are forced to repackage products into smaller bits (sachetisation) to boost profitability or close shop.
“According to our conversation with the companies and the market, the winning strategy is to play ‘cheap’. Given the nature of the current economy where consumer wallet is depressed,” said Yinka Ademuwagun, research analyst, FMCGs, United Capital Plc.
Most regular essential consumables such as milk, detergent, cooking oil, cereal, tomato sauce, cornflakes, toothpaste and so many other products are now in sachets. More recently, Baileys, Dettol, Morning Fresh and spaghetti have been added to the list of products now in sachets. This is to encourage quick sell and increase competitiveness in the consumer goods space, where affordability continues to be a big issue.
Sachet packaging gives low-income communities access to high-quality products while businesses also make more profits and revenues. This seems like a win-win situation except those sachets are a waste nightmare.
Beyond the small sachets of consumer goods is large-scale poverty and an impending ecological disaster that must not be ignored.
Desmond Majekodunmi, an Environmentalist and Chairman of Lagos State Urban Forest and Animal Shelter Initiative (LUFASI) explained that poverty is a vicious cycle that we have to break.
“Poverty is driving environmental pollution and environmental pollution is driving poverty, we have to break the vicious cycle that is causing degradation,”
Nigeria waste management problem
According to the Federal Ministry of the Environment, Nigeria generates some 32 million tonnes of waste per year, one of the highest amounts in Africa. Of the amount generated yearly, 2.5 million tonnes is plastic waste most of which (70percent) ends up in landfills, sewers, beaches and water bodies.
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The World Bank also estimates that Nigeria discharges around 200,000 tonnes of plastic waste into the ocean per year, while its annual plastics production is projected to grow to 523,000 tonnes by 2022.
The bank estimated that Nigeria will be the nation producing the largest amount of mismanaged plastic waste in Africa by 2025 if drastic measures are not taken.
Linda Akpami, an environmental, climate change and sustainable development consultant said that Nigeria has a poor waste management system, so most of these sachets end up on roadsides, drains causing floods.
“It is also causing marine pollution which ends up in water bodies and that is affecting marine and aqua lives,” she said.
Nigeria is already struggling with its huge volume of plastic and increase in sachets made from plastics will only lead to more waste alongside other damaging effects.
Climate-damaging emissions
It is not just the volume of waste Nigeria needs to worry about but what this means for the environment and the health of the citizens.
Sachet waste like other plastics is not biodegradable, which means they are nearly impossible to recycle. Plastics take at least 500 years to decompose.
When these wastes end up in landfills and are burnt, they pump huge amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere which are poisonous to human health.
Climate change has been declared an emergency by the United Nations which could have devastating effects on countries. Greenhouse gases have been a major driver of climate change. When certain gases are released into the atmosphere, they act like glass, trapping heat and stopping it from leaking back into space.
A United Nations climate panel has warned that global warming, caused largely by man, is becoming worse, and profound climatic changes already manifesting may be “irreversible” for centuries to come.
The burning of plastics releases toxic gases like dioxins, furans, mercury and polychlorinated biphenyls (better known as BCPs) into the atmosphere, and poses a threat to vegetation, and human and animal health. Burning plastic also releases black carbon (soot), which contributes to climate change and air pollution.
Sachet packaging is no different, as most sachets are manufactured out of a thin layer of plastic and aluminum, which also increases the atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases.
Flooding and food crisis
Already, the impact of climate change is felt in Nigeria with drought and excess flood, which has affected agricultural activities and caused loss of shelter for many.
Nigeria is currently facing a food crisis and climate change is making things worse. Last year, floods washed away at least two million tons of rice in Nigeria in Kebbi State and also destroyed 100,000 hectares of farmland across the Jigawa State.
A report by the Global Network against Food Crisis has also predicted that an estimated 12.80 million Nigerians across 16 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) may be facing its worst food crisis in 2021.
While there are factors like insecurity and dollar squeeze affecting food prices, extreme rainfall patterns have resulted in a poor harvest, causing food shortage and making food prices out of reach for Nigeria.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics, Nigeria’s food inflation rose to 21.03 percent in July 2021 compared to 15.48 percent in the same period last year.
Asides from dealing with the rising poverty, many Nigerians have had to lose their homes to flooding.
In 2012, floods displaced 2 million people in Nigeria, an additional 100000 in 2015, 92000 in 2016, 250000 in 2017, and in 2018, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) reported that 1.9 million people were affected.
WHO estimates that between 2030 and 2050, climate change is expected to cause approximately 250 000 additional deaths per year globally, from malnutrition, malaria, diarrhoea, and heat stress alone; this was estimated to translate to direct damage costs to health of between USD 2-4 billion per year.
According to the Department for International Development (DFID), climate change will cost Nigeria between 6 percent and 3o percent of its GDP by 2050.
The role of corporation
The role of corporations in the burgeoning problem of sachet waste cannot be downplayed.
Across different streets and drainages, it is hard to ignore the litters of sachets plastered with the names of big corporations.
These corporations continue to sachetize their products but have managed to shirk responsibility for the sachet waste, leaving local governments struggling with practically non-recyclable waste.
Sachets come at a high cost to society and the environment, which are not included in almost all corporate accounting of expenses and losses. The true costs of sachets are externalized, that is to say, their manufacturers do not pay for environmental pollution and harmful effects on human health.
Majekodunmi further explained that there will be grave consequences for the people and for the environment if businesses continue to put profit ahead of the people and the climate.
Ikenna Donald, program coordinator at Heinrich Böll Stiftung Foundation, Nigeria, said even though poverty is on the rise and businesses are trying to cover their cost of operation as well as make profit, there must be an element in their model that takes care of environmental sustainability. The model will ensure that companies become responsible for their products from when it leaves the warehouse down to when consumers have used them and they become by-products.
Who takes responsibility?
There is an urgent need for regulations to include sachets, and to exact accountability from the companies that manufacture them.
According to Leslie Adogame, executive director at Sustainable Research and Action for Environmental Development (SRADev Nigeria), there is a whole lot of corporate social irresponsibility going on in Nigeria and it is the big names like Nestle, Coca-Cola and biggie.
“They say they are carrying out social responsibility such as recycling and education at the ground level but it is clear that the environment is dangerously abused and everybody pays for it.
The government agencies are not doing their job, they are issuing NAFDAC numbers on sachets but do not have the ability to manage the sachet waste but they are encouraging the corporate bodies.
Our contribution to Africa’s climate change levels is increasing, by what I see Nigeria should be having the highest contribution on a daily basis when we add waste pollution to the gas flaring in the Niger-Delta and yet we want to continue to say we are the giant of Africa,” Adogame said.
Balancing environmental and business sustainability
Single-use sachets will continue to be a recipe for environmental disaster and it must not be ignored. Experts have given recommendations on how businesses can strike a balance between business sustainability and environmental sustainability.
Akpami recommended that Nigeria must begin to implement the polluter’s pay principle. The ‘polluters pay’ principle is the commonly accepted practice that those who produce pollution should bear the costs of managing it to prevent damage to human health or the environment.
An example is the Netherlands, there is a law that any company that uses more than 50,000 kilograms of single-use packaging material must pay a fee. With this money, the packaging industry finances collection and recycling. Also, retailers were banned from giving free plastic bags to customers. This means that a consumer must either pay for one or take along their own bag.
As a result of the cost of paying for plastic bags, consumers quickly formed a habit of bringing bags along when shopping. After a year, research showed that litter from plastic bags was reduced by 70 percent.
Donald also explained that companies need to be more responsible. “Before government begins to place a ban on plastic, nylon and other environmentally harmful packaging materials, they need to start to regulate themselves,”
They need to look at how we can use more environmentally friendly materials, so instead of using sachets, can we use more biodegradable items to package their products. For instance, powdered milk that we use in nylon, how about we use paper sachet.
There must be laws in place, we have lots of policies but we don’t have sanctions, no proper reporting channels where consumers can report defaulters and even when reports are made there might be no enforcement. It is a system and a leadership problem.
A lot of businesses also want to do the right thing but Nigeria’s business environment makes it difficult. There are inconsistent policies, multiple taxation and extortion making businesses difficult in Nigeria.
The government needs to put systems in place to make businesses operate more freely and reduce the cost of doing business,” he said.
Experts also say there is a need to educate small businesses and entrepreneurs on environmental sustainability.
“We need to rethink our business models. As we are encouraging SMEs and entrepreneurs, we need to educate them to understand the effect of their products and businesses on the environment,” said Afolasade Nubi, an environmental engineer at the University of Lagos said in a recent BusinessDay DISWASTE 2021 conference.
She urges businesses to begin to look for alternatives to plastics such as the use of paper bags in product packaging.
She also recommended the Return Deposit Scheme for plastic bottles. Deposit return schemes work by adding a small extra deposit on the price of drinks sold in plastic and glass bottles and cans, which the consumer gets back once they’ve returned the container for recycling.
Adogame also explained that Nigeria needs to immediately ban plastics that are not recyclable, one of them is sachet. There are other ways to package products in a more sustainable way.
“There is a lot of compromise between government agencies and these big corporations. NAFDAC should stop endorsing number on these categories of sachet packaging
There must also be tax on any food production outfit that is making use of environmentally harmful packaging materials,” he said
This story was produced under the NAREP Climate Change Media 2021 fellowship of the Premium Times Centre for Investigative Journalism
