Lagos Siezes N2.5M Worth Prohibited Styrofoams In One Week
By Felix Kuyinu
The Lagos State Government has disclosed that no fewer than N2.5 million worth prohibited single-use plastics have been sized during an enforcement operations held in the area.
The state government held that in the last seven days, enforcement were conducted in markets and shopping malls as part of it’s renewed efforts to rid of the banned items and also ensure tidiness in the metropolis.
As relayed by it’s Environmental Sanitation Corps, LAGESC agency, there were reports of continuous use of the banned items in Agege, Oshodi, Idumota, Mushin, Victoria Island and Lekki markets which constituted a negative threat in the environments and also posed as danger to public health.
The Corps Marshal, LAGESC, Olaniyi Cole, on Tuesday, stated that the use of plastic straws, plastic cutlery and all single-use carrier bags, nylons that have less than 40 micron thickness is also prohibited.
Cole said, “The ban on Styrofoam is already in effect and while the ban has also been extended towards single-use plastics, we discovered via intelligence reports that there are traders in shopping malls and markets around the State who keep flouting the orders of the State, hence our decision to undertake enforcement operations in the Agege, Oshodi, Idunmota, Mushin, Victoria Island and Lekki market areas which resulted in a seizure of banned products worth N2.5M.
“There is a need for total compliance to the eradication of Styrofoam food containers and all kinds of polystyrene cups, including disposable cups that possess no recycle value due to the non-biodegradable nature, which poses harm to the environment.
The agency’s head warned residents in the state against displaying wares for sale on road setbacks, lay-bys, medians, verges, gutter slabs, as these activities remain banned by the State’s environmental laws.
Cole also hinted on appropriate use of pedestrian bridges, alongside disengaging in open urination, defecation and indiscriminate dumping of refuse which blocks the drains and prevents the flow of storm water into the canals.
