Plastic pollution is one of the most dangerous forms of pollution affecting marine life. Canada’s Federal Environment Minister Catherine McKenna said, “If we don’t act, plastics will outweigh fish in our oceans by 2050.”
While that statement has been subjected to debate, the scale of the problem is not in doubt. The 2015 Science study reportedly estimates that 6.4 billion people living in 192 coastal countries generated 2.5 billion tonnes of garbage in 2010, and 99.5 million tonnes of that was plastic waste discarded within 50 kilometres of the ocean, meaning it could potentially make its way to the sea.
In 2015, scientists estimated that around 90 per cent of all seabirds have ingested some amount of plastic; UNESCO estimates that 100,000 marine mammals die because of plastic pollution each year.
In 2019, the BBC reported that a dead whale washed ashore in the Philippines had 40kg (88lbs) of plastic bags inside its stomach, according to researchers. This is one out of numerous instances of whales that have died after ingesting kilogrammes of plastic.
Recognising this plastic pollution crisis and the threat to marine life, the Association of Commonwealth Countries (ACU) noted that “countries across the Commonwealth collectively signed the Commonwealth Blue Charter in 2018 to affirm their shared commitment to tackling ocean-related challenges and preserving threatened marine ecosystems.
“Research and international collaboration have a vital role to play in driving the success of the Blue Charter at large. To boost cutting-edge research on marine plastics pollution and reduction, between 2018-2021 the UK Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and Waitrose & Partners provided funding for two phases of the ACU Blue Charter Fellowships Programme, supporting a total of 48 outstanding talents in the field to produce research, build knowledge exchange skills, and translate their knowledge into action.
“Fellows’ research outcomes are aligned with the following thematic areas: Preventing plastics from getting into the sea; developing alternatives to plastics; and cleaning up the seas.”
One of the research fellows, Dr Taiwo Hammed is an ACU Blue Charter Fellow at the University of Plymouth, UK.
He recently conducted a hands-on training workshop on upscaling plastic waste to road pavement bricks as part of the Blue Charter Fellowship research uptake.
The community in focus for the training conducted in March 2021 was Idado, a coastal community in Ibeju-Lekki Local Government Area of Lagos. The training took place as part of the Marine Plastic Debris Campaign in Lagos Coastal Beaches.
Dr Hammed, a lecturer with the Department of Environmental Health Sciences, College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, said that training he conducted is a result of his participation in the Blue Charter Knowledge Exchange Grant Scheme.
According to him, the scheme provided grants to alumni of the Blue Charter Fellowship programme to conduct activities aimed at ensuring the uptake of their research findings by end users.
For six months, Dr Hammed attended the Fellowship programme at the University of Plymouth, UK. The ACU and Waitrose & Partners that sponsored the programme found his research on marine plastic pollution of great potential to create lasting change in local communities affected by plastic pollution.
Dr Hammed told Nigerian Tribune that for more than 50 years, the global production of plastics has continued to rise and millions of tonnes of plastics end up in oceans each year.
He said that “due to the lack of community participation and involvement in Plastic Waste Management (PWM) policies and practices, Nigerian communities in the coastal area dispose of their plastic wastes in water bodies or in storm drainage channels.
“Effective methods such as recovery and recycling in marine neighbourhood communities that will prevent plastics from getting into the sea, however, remain insufficient and have not been implemented.”
The hands-on training had developing a circular economy as one of its themes, including upstream solutions to prevent plastics from becoming waste along the coastline. Participants were led on picking all the plastic waste along the coastline and segregating them into different polymers.
Using simple tools such as drum, metal mould, hand trowel, shovel and fire wood, Dr Hammed demonstrated the process of making road pavers by mixing molten plastic with beach sand.
According to him, “the road pavers produced are very strong, durable and can withstand harsh weather condition.”
Speaking on their durability, he said that unlike interlocking tiles made of cement; these road pavers due to their polymer constituent do not soak water.
Oyeronke Adegbile, who is the International Coastal Cleanup Coordinator-Nigeria, Ocean Conservancy, USA and Chief Research Officer of the Nigerian Institute for Oceanography and Marine Research (NIOMR) worked in collaboration with Dr Hammed at the training which was part of the ‘Marine Plastic Debris Campaign in Lagos Coastal Beaches’ at Idado community.
“We first went out with the local community who we have been teaching on how to keep their beaches clean. The plastics collected during the clean up were used to teach on how they can be converted into bricks,” she said.
Adegbile who runs the Marine Plastic Debris Campaign in Lagos Coastal Beaches sponsored by Ocean Conservancy with NIOMR as local partner, said, “The circular economy, we call it blue economy, because it concerns the ocean. It begins with people’s awareness about their environment and the need to keep the environment clean; and then translating that into action by way of picking up the litter in their beaches and being aware that this litter can be turned into wealth. It can be recycled and upcycled like Dr Hammed has demonstrated to turn the plastics into things that they can sell or use.”
At the end of the programme, Dr Hammed said, “It is our belief that this capacity building workshop will engender maximum participation of the community in collecting, separating and putting plastic waste into circular economy in a proper way rather than putting it on water bodies.”
One of participants at the programme, Mr Ayuba Salami testified that indeed waste nylon bags and plastic bottles were a challenge to coastal communities hence his excitement at finding a way to convert these wastes into useful products.
“I picked interest in how to take out this waste because I live in a riverine community. I am grateful to be part of the exercise,” he said.
Having demonstrated the workability of the technology used in the uptake, it is hoped that concerned authorities would pick interest in expanding the scale and scope of the solution. This will go a long way in developing Nigeria’s circular economy and reducing the plastic pollution crisis in the country’s water bodies.
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