Director General, National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA), Dr. Innocent Barikor, says there is heavy penalty for environmental violation along the value chain of the of the disposition of battery in a manner that is not acceptable by the law.
Barikor made this statement in Lagos during the Capacity Building Workshop on Used Lead-Acid Battery Recycling in Nigeria.
According to him, “one of the contents of the National Environmental (Battery Control) Regulations, 2024, is that it is driven by the “Polluter Pays Principle” and has established an Extended Producer Responsibility’ (EPR) system which means that we are going to cascade, so producers must take responsibility.
In his remarks, Dr. Leslie Adogame, Executive Director, Sustainable Research and Action for Environmental Development (SRADev Nigeria), said the workshop is about “building our capacity and creating awareness about the next steps in the use LED asset recycling batteries, a sector we think have been so much neglected for so many years, until we did a whistle blowing in 2016 by exposing the dangerous activities happening in that sector in terms of the recycling practices being undertaken by mostly Asians, Chinese and Indian companies, of course with connivers of some Nigerians, where we were told that they are doing green recycling, that is sustainable recycling of use lead acid recycling, batteries.
Mr. Andreas Manhart, from Oeko Institute in Germany, while speaking on the essence of the workshop, said: “The institute works on a lot of environmental topics and hazardous waste and contaminates are one of them, and contaminates travel around the world, so it’s basically a global responsibility to manage them properly. And contaminates have the biggest impacts directly on people. So, we’re not speaking about climate change, which certainly is extremely important. But those who really affect people, lead and heavy metals still stick out, but they can be managed. So, we have a lot of cases where these contaminates, and these processes can be done very well. But in Nigeria, of course, like in many other countries, is still quite some challenges. So today we’re talking about lead poisoning.”
On what Nigeria needs to do to effectively regulate the unwholesome practices, Manhart opined: “First of all, this is about lead acid batteries, which are recycled. So there is quite big business sector behind it to recycle them, and this can be done properly, but it’s not always done, and there are severe hot spots in the management and recycling sector in Nigeria, I would not say all of the sector, but part of it, and it’s extremely important, that there is a regulation to define minimum standards and to make the authorities to give them the tools to enforce such minimum requirements. So, this regulation is a crucial steppingstone to improvements.
Mikey Jarrell, a PhD student at the University of California, San Diego, USA, who flew into Nigeria to attend the workshop, said: “I specialise in development economics, which involves economic processes in developing countries. And for me, the topic that I find most interesting is development, the trade-off between growth and public health. For example, in the battery industry, there is a very clear trade-off. You can spend more money to get higher quality machines that pollute less but this might mean less growth, less employment. It’s a balance. Trying to find the balance is my research.
In his submission, Mr. Ade Babajide, Director, Lagos State Ministry of the Environment, called for synergy between various government establishments.
The Director, who represented the Commissioner and Permanent Secretary of the Lagos State Ministry of Environment and Water Resources, said the workshop offered an avenue for all stakeholders to look at the proper and judicious management of batteries and ferrous material which have a great impact on environment in view of heavy metal contamination.
Dignitaries at the Partnership for Responsible Battery and Metal Recycling (ProBaMet) workshop organised by SRADev-Nigeria with support from Oeko-Institute in Germany include Mrs. Miranda Amachree, Alliance for Responsible Battery Recycling (ARBR); Felix Odimegwu, Anambra State Commissioner for Environment; and Oba Kazeem Gbadamosi, the Ologijo of Ogijo.
Others are representatives from Lagos State Environment Protection Agency (LASEPA), Ogun State Environmental Protection Agency (OGEPA) and other stakeholders.
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