… as LASG ups advocacy on zero waste, recycling
The Former Executive Director, Nigerite Limited and past President, National Institute of Marketing of Nigeria, Engineer (Prince) Yemisi Shyllon, has reiterated that the nation’s waters are filled up with plastics from bottled water/drinks and sachet water posing health hazards to the citizery.
This is just as the Lagos State Ministry of Environment and Water Resources has announced its effort at boosting advocacy for recycling of waste products aimed at achieving zero waste.
Shyllon who was speaking at a conference themed, ‘Global Climate Change and the Challenges of Seaport Environmental Health Management,’ gave a primary focus on the improper disposal of plastics and nylons ranging from plastic bottles to ‘pure water’ sachets and other forms nylon-like sachets which eventually end in the sea polluting the nation’s water.
He raised alarm that plastics take 500 years to degrade and that these plastics because of improper disposal end up in the sea and eventually in the bellies of fish in the water making them unhealthy for human consumption because plastics are cancer-genic.
Shyllon regretted that people dispose waste 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 wanes our 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 sachet water waste.
“Plastics take about 500 years to degrade; when we and the government do not make arrangement for these wastes, the implication is that the drainage suffers. The gutters are clogged causing flooding in our environment and flooding destroys goods and services.
“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 throwing plastics into the gutters and streams; from there to the seas and they end up in the fish we eat.
“So, we have to take this issue very serious 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’m hereby calling on our government 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 because it’s 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.
Also speaking at the conference, representative of the Commissioner for Ministry of Environment and Water Resources, Lagos State, Mrs. Mrs. Toyin Oguntola, said the ministry is currently fighting disposal of plastics and ‘pure water’ sachets in the nation’s sea and ocean.
She announced that the ministry is no longer interested in waste; “it wants zero waste, even our kitchen waste can be recycled into biofuels.
“No waste is wasted; our mission is zero waste. We have zero waste mission in the Ministry of Environment and Water Resources.”
In view of this, Oguntola said the ministry has been on a campaign to educate the masses in various areas of Lagos Sate on the danger of improper waste disposal as regards health.
According to her, there is a surveillance team to monitor compliance to this advocacy saying that it has been on for a considerable length of time and that the ministry is about moving into enforcement.
Oguntola was of the view that the current generation needs to work on maintaining a healthy environment for the younger and upcoming generation to inherit.
“I wonder how we imbibed this culture of disposing waste carelessly, polluting the environment. We just throw waste into gutters and dump refuse anywhere. Our forefathers did not teach us that; they left a healthy environment for us,” she lamented.
The conference was organised by the Chartered Institute of Environmental and Public Health Management of Nigeria (in collaboration with Maritime Reporters’ Association of Nigeria (MARAN).