As part of measures to curb worsening environmental degradation, especially marine pollution, former President of the National Institute of Marketing of Nigeria, Engr. Yemisi Shyllon, has made a strong for the evolution of more robust waste to wealth initiatives in Nigeria with a view to mopping up all plastic and other waste products littering the environment.

Meanwhile, the Lagos State Ministry of Environment and Water Resources has assured that it is leaving no stone unturned in its projection to achieve its zero waste programme by encouraging waste recycling, especially plastics, which is a major cause of marine pollution in the country.

Speaking at a one-day annual international environmental management stakeholders’ conference organised in Lagos recently by the Chartered Institute of Environmental and Public Health Management of Nigeria in collaboration with the Maritime Association of Nigeria MARAN, Shyllon who is also a former Executive Director of Nigerite Limited, said such initiatives are capable of creating jobs for teeming Nigerian youths. The theme of the conference was: ‘Global Climate Change and the Challenges of Seaport Environmental Health Management”.

Shyllon decried the current situation whereby the nation’s marine environment, especially the inland waters are filled with plastic waste from bottled water/drinks and water sachets, which not only poses danger to safe navigation but also constitutes a health hazards to the entire citizenry.

According to him, improper disposal of plastics and other nylon products ranging from plastic bottles to water sachets and other forms nylon-like sachets which eventually end up in the sea, thus polluting the nation’s waters and causing navigational challenges.

He also disclosed that plastics take over 500 years to degrade and that some of these plastics because of improper disposal end up in the sea and eventually in the bellies of fishes in the water making them unhealthy for human consumption because plastics are cancer-genic.

Shyllon regretted that people dispose of wastes in gutters, causing flooding in the environment which is detrimental to goods and services.He maintained the need for recycling of waste or else it becomes destructive because it changes the ecosystem which eventually weakens human health.

His words: “Every time my boat 200h/p; two of them get hot because they get affected with bottled water thrown into the sea. The water is filled up with bottled and water sachet wastes.

“Plastics take about 500 years to degrade; when we and the government do not make arrangements for these wastes, the implication is that the drainage suffers. The gutters are clogged, causing flooding in our environment and flooding destroys goods and plants.

“More so, these wastes end up in the sea and fish in the water eventually eat these things which are cancer-genic. We’re increasingly suffering from cancer in this country and we don’t have a cancer diagnostic centre whereas in India they have over 200, so their chance of dying of cancer is very low.

“Also in the United States of America if you’re less than 25 years the chances of dying of cancer is zero.

“So, we’re killing ourselves by throwing plastics into the gutters and streams; from there to the     seas and they end up in the fish we eat. We therefore have to take this issue very seriously because we’re not immune to abandoning our maritime care.”

Shyllon harped on recycling of these waste products, pointing out that in developed countries recycling Act is promoted to encourage that we need to recycle our waste or our waste will destroy us because it changes the ecosystem which eventually affects us negatively.

He commended the organisers of the conference while calling on the government and institute to help in this fight for a healthy environment.

“I am hereby calling on our governments that our waste should be eliminated sensibly. In the U.S. if you go to buy things they no longer give you the plastic bags but paper bags because they are degradable.

“We are endangered species if we continue to use plastic that takes 500 years to degrade. Our children and grandchildren are in danger,” he alarmed.       

Meanwhile, representative of the Lagos State Commissioner for Environment and Water Resources, Mrs. Toyin Oguntola, while speaking at the conference, said the ministry is currently fighting disposal of plastics and water sachets in the nation’s seas and oceans, while intensifying its plastic recycling initiative.

She disclosed that the ministry is no longer interested in destroying waste products, as it has evolved mechanisms to recycle and convert them to wealth, adding that even kitchen wastes can be recycled into biofuels.

“No waste is wasted; our mission is zero waste. We have a zero waste mission in the Ministry of Environment and Water Resources”, she also said.