Environmental concerns grow as Styrofoam reappears in Lagos
• Broad enforcement of ban begins July 1, says KAI
Styrofoam containers seem like making a comeback in Lagos, with out reference to the deliver authorities’s enforcement of a ban on their expend and distribution, which started a year in the past.
The ban, offered in January 2024, became section of efforts to curb the environmental crash attributable to single-expend plastics, including non-biodegradable polystyrene foam, in general called Styrofoam.
The Lagos Voice authorities, thru its Ministry of Environment and Water Sources, had confiscated Styrofoam products show in outlets across the deliver at some stage in the initial section of enforcement. Styrofoam is widely extinct in the production of disposable plates recurrently show in eateries.
On the opposite hand, some food vendors bear resumed the expend of Styrofoam containers, elevating issues about compliance with the ban.In response, the Commissioner for Environment and Water Sources, Tokunbo Wahab, directed officers from the Lagos Voice Environmental Sanitation Corps (LAGESC), most incessantly is named Kick Against Indiscipline (KAI), along with officers from the Lagos Voice Ruin Management Company (LAWMA) and the Ministry, to intensify enforcement and take Styrofoam from outlets, retail outlets, and outlets.
The commissioner reiterated the authorities’s commitment to holding public health and the atmosphere, stating, “Styrofoam usage has caused crash to the health of residents and the deliver of the atmosphere for so decades. We are obvious to support viable doubtless alternatives to Styrofoam containers across the metropolis.”
Speaking with The Guardian, the spokesperson for KAI, Lukman Ajayi, confirmed that enforcement efforts bear no longer been suspended. “We bear no longer suspended enforcement. From July 1, 2025, massive enforcement will start up,” he acknowledged.
Ajayi well-known that the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) had earlier appealed for a 180-day grace period for producers and sellers to transition far from Styrofoam products, which the authorities granted. “Any marketer or food dealer that makes expend of Styrofoam is contravening the law. From July 1, 2025, we can advance out for big enforcement,” he warned.
He added that Styrofoam seizures were ongoing however that prosecutions would start in July. “Anybody caught will face three to 6 months’ imprisonment or a ravishing of N250,000,” Ajayi acknowledged.
