The Human and Environmental Development Agenda in partnership with OXFAM and PACJA has called on the Federal government to place ban on the domestic usage of styrofoam and polythene bags in Nigeria noting its devastating effects on flora and fauna.
Speaking at a one-day sensitisation programme held at Ajibode community in Akinyele local government area, Ibadan, the Executive Secretary of HEDA, said the calls became necessary in order to reduce the risk of terminal ailments including cancer-related diseases.
He, therefore, called on the National Assembly to enact law through an Executive bill to this effect.
Sulaimon Arigbabu, on Wednesday, called the Federal Government to ban the use of styrofoam and polythene bags nationwide which have become nuisance in Nigeria.
He said, “We are advocating that the use of styrofoam to produce plates that people just eat, discard it anyhow and find the nuisance everywhere should be banned in Nigeria. And we should be making move towards even banning the use of plastic bags that we call nylon.
“It has become our norm nowadays. You see somebody goes to the nearest shop to buy N50 biscuits, the person has even started eating that biscuit, he or she will still ask for nylon. We collect nylon for everything we buy even a N20 sweet and these people producing the nylon have every possible size.
“Anything we want to eat, we collect nylon and we indiscriminately discard this nylon and it becomes nuisance in our drainage, on our farm and pollute our farmlands. So, we appeal to government to ban the items in this country.”
While advising the government to improve waste management system, HEDA boss said it was imperative for government to ban the production and sales of anything that has not been contributing meaningfully to society.
Arigbabu also called on the religious houses, different associations and traders associations to enlighten their members on the need to reduce the use of polythene bags as it affects both the drainage and farmlands.
Two of the participants, Jadesola Adetunji and Adesegun Adeosun, who spoke with The PUNCH, said the programme impacted positively their lives, promising to go back to their respective communities and enlighten them on the need to dispose of their polythene bags properly.
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