GOVERNANCE | POLICY
My challenge with the public sector is the many factors that must be considered to make decisions—a necessary bureaucracy. You cannot just crunch numbers and move. You have a lot of stakeholders. So I do not understand why governments make decisions that show they did not consider the factors.
We Have Been Here Before
The LASG has chosen to use ban before, with okada. All governors of the state have instituted it in one way or another. The verdict is on the streets of Lagos. Enforcement was brutal, and people were left to walk long distances.
LASG is doing the same thing again; somehow, it expects the outcome to be different. The statement from the state cites two legislations. The same thing we saw with the Okada ban, two legislations were cited too. It appears LASG has a problem with enforcing legislation and is yet to properly confront it.
Who uses Styrofoam Packs?
The ẹ̀wà àgọ̀yìn hawker. The abacha seller. The woman with a table and stack of coolers selling rice at Marina. The numerous food vendors and canteens inside Mushin and Idumota. Chicken Republic 🫠
I wonder how the state reached its decision if it identified the personas of the people who sell with it and their customers—the value of “takeaway pack” is in its disposable nature. To eliminate it in one fell swoop is to be blind to its utility.
Nobody wants to carry plates everywhere they go. It makes sense to buy/sell with fùkẹ̀ fùkẹ̀. A food seller doesn't need to go from shop to shop, asking for the plates that they sold food in and covered with black nylon (single-use plastic by the way) and the person who is buying abacha doesn’t need to go home and bring plate 🌚
The state seems to be talking about other single-use plastics (SUPs) in a low voice. Plastic bags (nylon bags) are SUPs but unlike styrofoam packs, they are used across social classes in Nigeria. It is difficult not to view the emphasis on styrofoam and a ban like this as a class issue. Same as the Okada ban. The state has shifted ground on the demolition of properties on waterways—a move we did not see with Okada and are unlikely to see with styrofoam packs.
The interesting thing is that the House of Reps passed a bill to prohibit the use of SUP in 2019. I am unable to confirm if it was signed into law, but the provisions are quite beautiful 😶 Nwafor and Walker (2020) say the two-section bill is
“lacking in many important details, such as providing citizens adequate notice, public consultations, jurisprudence and practicability, such as those used elsewhere where sufficient public consultation was given”.
The statement above by Nwafor and Walker (2020) is the same challenge with the ban LASG instituted. LASG is repeatedly becoming an example of regulatory risk. The producers of styrofoam packs, the wholesalers/retailers, and the users highlighted previously are supposed to align overnight. The approach to enforcement is troubling;
“The Commissioner advised producers, distributors, and end-users of these styrofoam packs to take the ban seriously and find alternatives or risk heavy fines, and other penalties including the sealing of their premises. He warned that they could also be made to bear the costs of the daily cleanup of their products from our roads and drainage channels which runs into tens of millions of naira daily”
A ban was instituted Sunday evening, and end users of styrofoam packs (again, SUPs are omitted) are expected to have an alternative by Monday. The state could not mention any alternative. A ban is a lazy policy move in my books. They do not have to think about what end-users will switch to or what producers and distributors will do with their existing stock. Sealing their properties and instituting fines for an announcement of this kind makes one wonder if LASG is hellbent on being a regulatory risk.
Chicken Republic & The SUP Problem
SUP is a can of worms, and I do not think LASG realizes the implication of its statement. Chicken Republic (CR) — the largest QSR in Nigeria — released a statement to inform the public of its immediate adherence and support for the decision of LASG on styrofoam packs. I am willing to bet that they are the single-largest user of styrofoam packs. Their outlets have introduced plastic plates (reusable) recently, but from my observation, it is only for large orders.
While CR claims to support environmental protection as seen in its immediate transition away from styrofoam packs and encouraging its customers to bring their plates (haq! 😂), it forgets that the white nylon bags it uses to package orders and the cutleries it adds to it are SUP. Glovo advocates for its users to take orders without cutleries for environmental reasons.
Every single supermarket is in violation of the ban. Every food restaurant. Every retailer. Every single retailer. From the guys selling clothes in Yaba to the women selling tomatoes at Mile 12. Unless SUP was just mentioned for sophistication.
It appears to me, that in order not to be seen as solely targeting only styrofoam packs, the state mentions SUP. The opening line of the state’s reportage says:
Lagos State Government on Sunday announced a ban on the usage and distribution of styrofoam and other single-use plastics in the State with immediate effect
Nowhere in the reporting does it specify what the “other single-use plastics” are. Again, it looks like a class issue. The state is comfortable instituting bans when the class most affected isn’t its wealthiest. The evidence available is not in its favour on that allegation.
LASG is choosing to be lazy. It should not attempt to play environmental protector by targeting styrofoam packs but claim to include other unnamed SUPs. The refusal to list all the SUPs concerned, give a timeline for phaseout, and explicitly state alternatives is how lazy people behave. Just dump an announcement and leave the public to figure out the fine details.
How Should We Think About Policy?
The easy answer is; to clearly identify the problem, and think of the best ways to solve it. NESG’s policy brief on the plastic waste problem does this. First, it highlights what it calls the two core issues;
- “Companies use Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) and single-use plastics for their packaging because they are cheap, lightweight, resilient, usually non-reactive, waterproof, and sometimes recyclable”
- “Household disposal of plastic waste is not regulated, so plastics are disposed of together with other solid waste”
Then, they suggest three alternative policies to combating them; Plastic Packaging Tax, Improvement of the Nigeria Policy on Plastic Waste Management and Plastic Pollution Awareness Campaigns. Their policy brief addresses the plastic problem from a border perspective as against LASG zeroing in on styrofoam packs and unnamed SUP.
What NESG’s brief does is highlight that they understand the problems. LASG sees styrofoam packs in gutters, with plenty of videos and pictures showing them floating and clogging drainages. The next move is a ban. I am inclined to believe LASG does not understand the problem on its hands. Or it doesn’t realize the scale of the problem.
Styrofoam and other SUPs are an environmental problem. A big one. They need to go. However, the regulators are to carefully think of the “how”. It is worrying that LASG has refused to do this. I refuse to believe they thought through “how” and came up with the declaration made on Sunday. Kenya provides some lessons for us on the implication of SUP regulation that is not well thought-out.
I advocate for slow and accurate as against fast and disastrous when it comes to public policy. I don’t need the government to be in the news every day rolling out one thing and launching another. I’d rather have them in my face when they have something solid that has more merits than flaws. However, I can only speak for myself. Some others prefer seeing week-in-review and media activity regularly.
Paper packaging is the most popular alternative to SUP across the world. Nigerian food vendors are already adopting it. Burgers, Pies and fries at CR and KFC are sold in paper. Spaghetti stirfry is sold in paper containers by many small food vendors. This adoption has happened without any coercion by the government. The class of consumers they serve is worth keeping in mind.
I checked the price that The Paper Packaging Company sells 100pcs of its Small Lunch Box (the closest to the size of a styrofoam pack). It is ₦14,512.50. Meanwhile, a search on Jiji shows Celplas sells 100pcs of styrofoam packs at ₦2,000. 7x cheaper. No comments on that 🙏🏾
In a theoretical world where LASG eliminates styrofoam packs, and every retailer uses paper, the waste problem won’t go away. The streets will be littered with paper. The state is refusing to confront the elephant in the room; proper waste disposal.
Whether styrofoam packs, canned energy drinks, bottled water, yam peels, or old fabrics, something will clog the drainages. LASG should sit back and ask how it intends to fix proper waste disposal. Closing markets today. Banning styrofoam packs tomorrow. It looks reactive. If the state has thought through fixing its waste problem and these are its solutions, it should go back and think again. It is applying paint without plastering the walls.
In case you didn’t know, pure water sachet is a SUP 🤌🏾
For Otunba ✨
