NCF Calls for Collective Action in Fight Against Plastic Pollution

Bennett Oghifo

The Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF) has called on everybody to take action in the fight against plastic pollution, because they handle plastic in their spaces daily. 

The Director General of NCF, Dr. Joseph Onoja stated this during the commemoration of the 2025 World Environment Day in Lagos, recently. The theme of the World Environment Day 2025 is Beating Plastic Pollution.

Onoja said, “It is very important that we all come together and the importance of this cannot be overstated, because sometimes we normally look at government we look at organisations to see that they are the ones who do the work of beating plastic pollution, but it lies on individuals. So I want to call on individuals, each individual, what are you doing to be able to beat plastic pollution in your space? 

The first thing to do is for us to refuse to use plastic. If we cannot, if we must not, then we shouldn’t, and that is why I’m happy with the Lagos State Government that has banned the single use plastics, and that is why we have a lot of people using shopping bags to go for groceries and so on.” 

He said, “If we cannot refuse and we must use it then we should be able to recycle it, after we’ve used it.”

Using plastic bags, he said, doesn’t make anyone an elite, but that elites know that they should use recyclable plastic always.

He condemned people who throw plastic bottles and bags out of their car windows while driving, saying it is a primitive way of doing things.

“Sometimes you find yourself driving behind a posh car, a car that you think that the person driving is enlightened, all of a sudden you see that they wind down their window and throw out plastic bottles. You just wonder what planet that person came from.

“I’m saying all of this so that we know that it is an individual responsibility not just the cooperate organisation, not just the government, but each and everyone of us have a role to play in beating plastic pollution.” 

However, he said there is a good thing about plastic crisis which is that it is turning into an economic opportunity because people are making money out of it. 

“I’m looking forward to a day when people would see plastic on the ground, they will rush to pick it up because that is money going there, and we have a lot of social enterprise coming up turning plastics or  recycling it into very useful materials.” 

He urged everyone to reflect on how to use plastic “to create innovative solution to some of the challenges that we are having. So, there lies an opportunity because once you provide a solution to a challenge and you are able to scale it then you will be in money.  Let us join hands to beat Plastic Pollution because it’s not just for the environment, it’s for us. I use to tell people that the environment does not need man, man needs the environment. The environment will thrive without us, so if we pollute the environment, the environment will pollute us, and we will  not be able to live the lives that we should live.”

He noted that while the school children were making their presentation during event, they said “imagine that you open your fish and you see plastics in it, you will not be able to eat that fish, but there are micro plastics that have embedded themselves into the fish tissue that we are consuming that ends up on our plates. So, it is our responsibility to take charge of our future by ensuring that our food don’t have micro plastics in them and don’t affect us. That is why we have different kinds of cancers these days that we can’t even trace to anything. Sometimes they are due to some of these things that we’ve already ingested into our system.”

The special adviser to the Lagos State Governor on Climate Change and Circular Economy, Mrs Titilayo Oshodi said, “There are so many other aspects of waste, beyond plastic, that are available for economic development, for green technology, for environmental sustainability. So, if we’re tackling pollution from a waste management perspective, it unlocks potentials for waste collectors. It unlocks potential and solutions for people who are in innovation and technology to be able to leverage digitised solutions to drive in efficiency for collection, for dispersion, for export purposes, for treatment of plastic. Our world is becoming more and more based on the level of evolution. There is textile, there is e-waste. You can imagine the sort of waste that we generate in Lagos, much less in Nigeria in e-waste. Your cameras, our telephones, our mobile phones, our TVs, our radios, the computers, the laptops, all of these waste, where do they end up? So we need to continue with opportunities, with events like this to help people to understand what is economically viable in the area of waste, in the generation of waste. 

“Now, it is waste in transition because the value X is infinitesimal. Waste can be converted to anything for anybody in any community, from cash to recharge card to subsidy in social amenity, transport. Lagos State has a cowrie card that we began to establish models and mechanisms where communities can have access to discounts in their cowrie card so that they can get onto the bus, they can get onto the rail, they can get onto the waterways. We have mechanisms right now that can help people to gather their waste and they can convert it in exchange for a health policy, the Lagos State Health Policy through LASHMA, the Lagos State Health Policy through different private organisations because we’re also beginning to integrate private sector corporates into this framework so that all hands can be on deck to ensure that we’re driving the right climate-friendly behaviour and the right attitude to managing waste efficiently and rightly. 

“We need to start being very mindful, being very intentional about how we manage our waste. Yes, we’re talking about plastic, but plastic is not the only waste that has been generated in an average home, in a typical home. Like I said, there is textile, there is e-waste, there is organic waste. There is cosmetics, those boxes, there’s cardboard, there is paper. We need to start being mindful about driving the sensational narrative. People need to start developing ways to connect with other people using waste. Establish an ecosystem or establish an eco school or establish an eco club in your community, in your church, in your mosques, at your place of work. Let there be a drive for sustainable environment. Drive for inclusivity. Create bands of that economic transaction for waste to be transitioned to valuable items.”