Manufacturers have been called upon to realise that their responsibility extends beyond just creating products, and thus should start designing commodities with end-of-life considerations in mind.
This submission formed part of the resolutions from the 2024 Brand Audit and clean-up exercise undertaken by Sustainable Research and Action for Environmental Development (SRADev) Nigeria on Thursday, May 2, 2024, in collaboration with the Association of Waste Pickers of Lagos (ASWOL).
According to SRADev and ASWOL officials, it is not enough for producers to dissociate from their products after they have been distributed or sold.
“Too often, products are designed without considering what happens to them once they’re no longer useful, resulting in high levels of pollution within communities,” they stated, adding that manufacturers should use materials that are easily recyclable/biodegradable, design products to be easily disassembled for recycling, and adopt recycled materials into the manufacturing process of new products.
“Producers have a responsibility to ensure that their products don’t end up polluting our environment. Efforts such as collaborating with waste pickers and setting up efficient collection and recycling systems are also long overdue. These systems should also be easily accessible to all to make it easy for consumers to dispose of their waste responsibly,” noted the 2024 Brand Audit promoters.
The audit, which held at Tarmac, Oluwole Housing Estate, Ogba in Lagos State, and featured 23 participants, listed the top five polluting parent companies to include the Coca-Cola Company, La Casera Company, Grand Oak Limited, Intercontinental Distillers Limited and Heineken (makers of Farouz).
The exercise, which audited 1,706 plastics and in respect of which food packages (bottle/sachet components) constituted about 89% of the plastic brand pollutants identified, established the top five individual polluting brands as Nirvana, Adbuk (sachet water), Coca-cola, Seaman’s Schnapps, and Safrika (sachet water).
In addition to significant plastic waste generated from well-established brands, the audit found that the single-use plastic packaging of sachet water and alcoholic drinks were notable contributors to pollution within the community.
The audit also identified majority of plastics as bottle labels and PET (polyethylene terephthalate), while the least amounts of plastic types were PS (polystyrene) and HDPE (high-density polyethylene).
Apart from raising awareness about health effects of plastic pollution and providing data on plastic polluting the environment to help identify the companies responsible, other objectives of the audit were listed to include: holding corporate organisations accountable for plastic pollution, and urging further action to eliminate single-use plastics through regulatory action in Nigeria.
The Brand Audit is an annual event organised by Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA) and Break Free from Plastics (BFFP) (GAIA/BFFP plastics campaign) aimed at building a world free from plastic pollution.
The brand audit exercise is a participatory citizen science initiative that involves recording data on plastic waste majorly polluting our environment towards advocacy for effective plastic waste management. The audit involves documenting the brands found on plastic waste to help identify the companies responsible for plastic pollution.
The brand audit demands that top polluting fast-moving consumer goods corporations need to reveal the full extent of their plastic footprint, reduce it significantly by setting and implementing ambitious targets, and most importantly, redesign their packaging materials to be reusable or plastic-free.
SRADev Nigeria, being a GAIA/BFFP core member, participates in the brand audit exercise by identifying a commercial place to clean-up and audit plastic waste collected.
