The Permanent Secretary, Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mr Adesola Olusade, has described plastic waste as a major threat to human health.
Speaking during a road show to commemorate this year’s World Environment Day, with the theme: “Beat Plastic Pollution”, Olusade, said that the production, usage and disposal of plastic materials were not only polluting ecosystems, but endangering human and animal health.
Represented by Mr Osi Braimah, Director of AEPB, the Permanent Secretary added that plastic pollution also destabilize the climate
World Environment Day is marked on June 5 of every year.
He further stated that globally, the plastic waste situation had assumed a worrisome dimension.
“It has also become endemic, with drainage channels, canals and waterways littered with various plastic wastes.
“This contributes significantly to climate change, which results in short term damage, such as erosion and flooding, due to blockages of streams and waterways.
“This is why the matter is of utmost priority, as the world marks yet another World Environment Day in 2023,” Olusade said.
The Permanent Secretary said that it was pertinent to bring to the fore the awareness of plastic management as an adaptation strategy to climate change.
“Only an integrated systemic shift from a linear to a circular economy can keep plastics out of our ecosystems and bodies.
“The recent United Nations Environmental Report laid out key elements of the required market transformation, rethinking and redesigning products, reusing, recycling, reorienting and diversifying markets,” he said.
