LAGOS – Prof. Oladele Osibanjo, the Executive Director of Basel Convention Coordinating Centre for the African region, on Tuesday urged Nigerians to begin to imbibe efficient waste management practices.
Osibanjo told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that it was imperative for young and old Nigerians to differentiate between waste disposal and management.
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NAN reports that the main goal of the Basel Convention Regional Centres (BCRCs) is to strengthen the capacities of countries in the region for the implementation of the Basel Convention and its amendments.
The Basel Convention is focused on the control of trans-boundary movement of hazardous waste and their disposal and provides in its article 14 for the establishment of the regional centres.
Osibanjo said:“Nigerians are presently not practising waste management. What we think is waste management is waste disposal.
“Right now, we can hardly collect and efficiently manage 40 percent of the waste we generate at home and in public places.
“So, for Nigeria with a huge population, it is expedient that we all begin to embrace efficient waste management practices.
“We need to discard our old mentality of seeing waste as materials to be thrown away. We should all begin to see waste as valuable resources.’’
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Osibanjo, a professor of Analytical and Environmental Chemistry, urged Nigerians to start practising waste recycling, waste re-use and waste transformation in their communities.
He added that it was important for the Federal Government to make waste management a national policy as well as to develop an integrated waste management approach.
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“We need to know that planetary resources are gradually getting scarce and scarce.
“So, if Nigerians do not start recycling waste, we are going to have a barrenness of resources and Nigerians cannot afford that.
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“Nigerians should, therefore, not continue to throw away waste, but should make them into valuable resources,’’ Osibanjo said. (NAN)