Bloomberg Businessweek - USA (2019-11-18)

◼ BUSINESS Bloomberg Businessweek November 18, 2019

18

PHOTOGRAPH

BY

YAGAZIE

EMEZI

FOR

BLOOMBERG

BUSINESSWEEK.

DATA:

WORLD

BANK

● Withplastic beverage

containeruse doubling

in threeyears, pressure

torecycleis building

With 21 millionresidentswhosegrowingneeds

havefaroutpacedthesupplyofbasicservicessuch

aselectricity,water,androads,Lagos,Africa’smost

populouscity,hasplentyofuniquechallenges.

Butthere’soneit shareswithmegacitiesaround

theworld:a worseningplasticwasteproblem.

TheamountofplasticbottlesusedinNigeriahas

doubledinjustthepastthreeyears,toanestimated

150,000metrictonsannually,withhalfofthem

consumedinLagos,accordingtotheFoodand

BeverageRecyclingAlliance(FBRA),a tradegroup.

Four-fifthsofthecontainersareneverreusedor

recycled,andduringevena modestrain,thecity’s

streetscanfloodbecauselitter—muchofit plastic

trash—blocksdrainagelines.

That’swhyinformalcollectorssuchasMaryAlex

couldbekeytothecity’ssustainabilityfuture.The

gregarious44-year-oldwitha gap-toothedsmile

ownsa foodanddrinkkioskinthehistoriccenterof

LagosknownastheBrazilianQuarters.Herproxim-

itytothearea,whereanexceptionallylargenumber

ofplasticbottlesareconsumedbecauseofthepopu-

lationdensity,manybusinesses,andfrequentstreet

parties,hasgivenAlexanunlikelybutlucrativeside

gigcollectingPET(polyethyleneterephthalate)bot-

tlestoberecycled.

InthefourmonthsthatendedinAugust,Alex,

better known as Mama Daniel, made 215,000 naira—

about $600, or twice what the lowest-paid Nigerian

government worker would have earned in the same

period—retrieving plastic trash. She’s collected

about 14.3 tons of it, a performance so good that

her income from bottle collection now dwarfs that

from her kiosk. “I attend parties, and when they’re

done I pull out my bag and start to pack bottles

without shame,” she says. “Even now I can leave

my stall at any time and ask my neighbor to watch

over it if there are bottles to pick.”

Notwithstanding Alex’s remarkable prowess,

Lagos officials know the area will require a more

formal recycling infrastructure. So regulators, sus-

tainability groups, and representatives of beverage

makers, including the local units and distributors

of Coca-Cola, Nestlé, and PepsiCo—the world’s top

three producers of plastic waste according to the

groupBreakFreeFromPlastics—metinLagosin

Octobertohashouta standardallowingdrinkscom-

paniestopackageproductsinrecycledPET,orrPET.

BoostingdemandforrPET,whichis moreexpensive

thanvirginplastic,wouldencourageinvestmentin

recyclingoperations.“Allthispointstoshowthat

thisis a stakeholderandmarket-driven standard,”

says Chinyere Egwuonu, director of standards devel-

opment at the Standards Organisation of Nigeria.

The concept of formal recycling isn’t widespread

in Lagos. Until now the government hasn’t moved

to allow drinks to be packaged in recycled material

because of health concerns. Even bottles that don’t

end up burned or blocking sewer grates—particu-

larly bad environmental outcomes—are thrown in

unsorted trash and eventually make their way to

one of two landfills to be buried in a gooey mish-

mash of solid waste. Thousands of scavengers live

and work on the landfills, hunting for specific mate-

rials including PET, which only a handful of manu-

facturers there are willing to buy.

While Nigeria consumed less than 1% of all PET

bottles in 2018 globally, less than 10% of that waste

gets collected and recycled, making it an environ-

mental nuisance worldwide. In a study published

Lagos Is Facing Its

Bottle Problem

Plastic Trash Goes Global

Although Lagos generates less plastic waste per ton of trash than some other major cities,

poor waste infrastructure means most of it ends up in dumps and waterways.

Lagos

Luanda

Abidjan

Cape Town

Dar Es Salaam

Other cities

Paris

Beijing

Toronto

Hyderabad

Berlin

Sub-Saharan

Africa cities

1.6m

1.

1.

1.

1.

1.

7.

0.

1.

1.

Solid waste

produced in 2016,

in metric tons

Plastic as share of solid waste

Sub-Saharan

Africaaverage

15%

17%

13

11

9

8

12

8

6

2