Nestle Nigeria removes 100 million wrappers of packaging waste from environment

As part of its continued efforts towards environmental sustainability, Nestlé Nigeria has restated the need for continued consumer education on collection and proper disposal of packaging waste.

The company said on Tuesday in Lagos that it was in line with its commitment toward ensuring that none of its product packaging, including plastics, should end up in landfills or as litter in the environment, in the seas, oceans and waterways.

It made the assertion as it concluded it “Maggi Mega Millions” in Lagos, adding that over 100 million Maggi wrappers were collected by participants from across the country.

“Waste pollution is one of the biggest sustainability issues the world is facing today.

“Its impact can be seen across many urban cities, oceans and waterways across the world,’’ it said in a statement made available to the News Agency of Nigeria.

“Nigeria generates more than 32 million metric tonnes of waste annually with Lagos alone producing about 10,000 metric tonnes which end up in landfills and in waterways, exacerbating the challenges of flooding and gridlocks.

“Tackling this menace requires multi-sector and multi-stakeholder collaboration to accelerate progress toward a sustainable solution.

“The recently concluded MAGGI MEGA MILLIONS is therefore a welcome intervention to sensitise the general public on the need for proper waste management.’’

It said that over 100 million Maggi wrappers — over 7 tonnes, were collected and returned by participants across Nigeria.

Speaking at the end of the Maggi Mega Millions in Lagos, Nwando Ajene, Category Manager Culinary, Nestlé Nigeria said: “We believe that this activity has helped to encourage proper collection, sorting and disposal of packaging materials to help ensure a cleaner environment.

“With the success of this initiative in retrieving this volume of wrappers in only six weeks, we believe that with all stakeholders working together, we can ensure a sustainable waste-free environment.’’

It said that participants at the closing event included members of the Nestlé Nigeria’s management team and the Executive Secretary of the Food and Beverage Recycling Alliance (FBRA), Agharese Lucia Onaghise.

“This is a great initiative by Nestlé in line with its commitment to recover their post-consumer waste from the environment.

“It is interesting to see the amount of Maggi wraps collected from this programme that would otherwise have been disposed indiscriminately.

“I encourage all to continue to ensure we are responsible for the waste we generate so that we can have a cleaner environment,’’ Onaghise said.

On what else Nestlé is doing about waste management in Nigeria, the statement said the company was a founding member of the FBRA whose mission is to build a self-sustaining recycling economy around post-consumer packaging waste to stimulate employment, wealth creation and innovation.

“The company remains committed to working with other stakeholders to achieve its ambition of ensuring that none of its packaging waste ends up as litter in the environment.’’

It will be recalled that in September 2019, Nestlé Nigeria signed an MOU with Wecyclers to accelerate the process of recovering and recycling post-consumption plastic packaging waste in Lagos State.

This partnership, in addition to reaching five more communities and 15,000 more subscribers, also aims to drive consumer education and awareness on sustainable waste management in the five communities.

Throwing more light on this, Victoria Uwadoka, Corporate Communications and Public Affairs Manager for Nestlé Nigeria said: “A key factor for ensuring the success of efforts to improve waste management is consumer education and awareness.

“At Nestlé, we are passionate about protecting the environment where we live and work, and will continue to work with all stakeholders, including our industry alliance, FBRA and our partner, WeCyclers to reach even more communities and consumers with critical information on how to collect, sort and dispose of waste for effective management’’

On Nestlé’s global environmental sustainability strategy, it that earlier in the year, Nestlé announced its global vision of ensuring that 100 per cent of its packaging is reusable or recyclable by 2025.

To this end, Nestlé inaugurated the Institute of Packaging Sciences in Switzerland, the first-of-its-kind in the food industry.

This Institute will enable Nestlé to accelerate its efforts to bring functional, safe and environmentally friendly packaging solutions to the market and to address the global challenge of plastic packaging waste.

Nestlé Nigeria Plc began simple trading operations in Nigeria in 1961 and has today grown into a leading food manufacturing and marketing company.

Nestlé Nigeria is the biggest food company in West Africa and Nestlé Nigeria employs around 2,300 people and has three world-class factories.

Nestlé Nigeria manufactures and markets a range of high quality brands, including MAGGI, MILO, GOLDEN MORM, NESTLE PURE LIFE and NESCAFE.