From Waste To Wealth: The Difficult Road To Fixing Nigeria’s Garbage Problem

By AUGUSTINA McSOLOMON-OGHAKPERUO

A Crisis Visible on Every Street

NIGERIA’S waste problem has become increasingly difficult to ignore. Across many cities, overflowing dumps compete with homes, markets, roads, waterways and undeveloped plots for space. In some communities, refuse has become so embedded in the urban landscape that residents encounter it not as an occasional nuisance, but as a daily reality.

Yet, the problem is not simply about the amount of waste Nigerians generate. It is also about what happens after consumption.

When households, businesses and industries discard materials without adequate collection, sorting, treatment or disposal systems, the consequences quickly spread beyond the immediate dumping site. Blocked drainage channels can worsen flooding. Open burning can degrade air quality. Plastics can enter waterways and remain in the environment for years. At the same time, valuable materials that could have been reused or recycled are lost.

The World Bank’s recent assessment underscores the scale of the challenge. Nigeria generated an estimated 44.5 million tonnes of municipal solid waste in 2021, while the quantity is projected to approach 89.8 million tonnes by 2040 if current trends continue. The increase reflects not only population growth, but also urbanisation, changing consumption patterns and economic activity.

Consequently, fixing the crisis requires much more than clearing existing dumps. Nigeria needs to rethink how it generates, collects, transports, processes, recycles and ultimately disposes of waste.

Why the Existing System Keeps Struggling

Several structural weaknesses continue to undermine waste management.

Rapid urbanisation has increased pressure on municipal services, while planning and infrastructure have often failed to keep pace. The World Bank has previously linked Nigeria’s rapid and frequently unplanned urbanisation with deficits in basic services, including solid-waste management.

Meanwhile, environmental analysts identify inadequate funding, weak data systems, shortages of skilled personnel and insufficient enforcement as persistent obstacles. Fragmented institutional responsibilities can further complicate the situation, particularly when several agencies or levels of government have overlapping responsibilities.

In addition, waste management depends heavily on reliable collection infrastructure. Where collection vehicles, transfer stations, engineered disposal facilities and recycling centres are inadequate, residents often resort to informal disposal points.

Mr. Williams Osaze, President of the Society for the Promotion of People’s Rights, therefore argues that government must treat indiscriminate waste disposal as a serious public-health and environmental issue.

For him, the response requires coordination rather than isolated interventions. Government agencies, communities, private operators and civil-society organisations must work from a coherent policy framework capable of connecting environmental protection with the right to a healthy environment.

Plastic Waste Adds Another Layer

Plastic waste makes the problem even more complicated.

Unlike organic materials that can decompose relatively quickly, many plastic products persist in the environment. Consequently, when collection systems fail, plastic packaging can accumulate in drains, waterways, streets and open spaces.

Chief Monday Itoghor, Chief Executive of the Environmental and Rural Mediation Centre, says Nigeria needs a more aggressive response to plastic production, consumption and disposal.

However, he also identifies practical barriers that could prevent recycling from reaching the scale required. These include limited public awareness, inadequate collection infrastructure in remote communities, high logistics costs and insufficient financing.

Another major concern is the implementation of Extended Producer Responsibility, or EPR. The principle requires producers to take greater responsibility for the environmental impact of products throughout their life cycle, including after consumers discard them.

NESREA already maintains an EPR framework and provides registration mechanisms for producers, producer-responsibility organisations, recyclers and collectors.

The challenge, therefore, is not merely to create policies. Nigeria must also make those policies work consistently on the ground.

The Public Cannot Be Left Out

Government intervention alone, however, cannot solve a problem that begins partly with everyday behaviour.

Mr. Michael Ogbonna, a climatologist, points to the role individuals can play through reducing consumption, reusing materials and separating recyclable items.

That responsibility becomes particularly important because household behaviour determines what enters the waste stream in the first place. If recyclable materials, organic waste and hazardous materials are mixed together, recovery becomes more expensive and more difficult.

Public education consequently needs to become a permanent part of waste management.

Prof. Emmanuel Oladipo, an environmental expert, argues for regular sensitisation programmes in markets, schools, parks, shopping centres and other public spaces. Such programmes, he says, should explain environmental regulations while helping citizens understand how their daily actions affect sanitation and environmental quality.

This approach matters because environmental compliance cannot depend entirely on occasional campaigns. It requires continuous communication, monitoring and enforcement.

Industry Has a Role Beyond Disposal

The private sector also occupies a critical position in the waste equation.

Mr. Sola Obadimu, Director-General of the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, links waste management with industrial efficiency and cleaner production.

He cited an annual solid-waste generation figure of more than 32 million tonnes and argued that cleaner production methods could help reduce industrial waste while lowering operational inefficiencies.

The distinction is important. A sustainable waste strategy should not focus exclusively on what happens after waste has been created. It should also ask why so much waste is being generated in the first place.

Resource-efficient and cleaner production approaches can reduce material losses, improve energy efficiency and potentially lower production costs. Globally, the World Bank similarly identifies more efficient and circular waste systems as opportunities for economic growth, job creation and innovation.

Turning Waste Into an Economic Asset

That broader idea lies at the heart of Nigeria’s emerging circular-economy agenda.

In a traditional linear model, resources are extracted, converted into products, consumed and discarded. A circular economy attempts to keep materials in use for as long as possible through reuse, repair, recycling, recovery and more efficient production.

Nigeria’s National Waste Marketplace Programme represents one attempt to move in that direction.

Launched by the Federal Government in October 2025, the digital platform was designed to connect waste generators, collectors, aggregators, recyclers and end-users in a transparent and traceable system. The programme is aligned with the National Policy on Solid Waste Management, the Extended Producer Responsibility framework and the National Circular Economy Roadmap.

The concept is significant because one of the weaknesses in waste management is the disconnect between people who possess recyclable materials and businesses that need those materials.

A functioning marketplace can help close that gap.

Prof. Innocent Barikor, Director-General of the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency, said the programme could also create opportunities for young people and micro-enterprises by supporting circular business models and regulated secondary-material markets.

Technology Cannot Replace Basic Infrastructure

Nevertheless, digital platforms have limits.

An online marketplace can connect a collector with a recycler, but it cannot physically remove a pile of refuse from a street. Technology can improve traceability, but it cannot substitute for collection trucks, transfer stations, recycling facilities, sanitary landfills or trained personnel.

Therefore, the digital transition must accompany physical investment.

Nigeria needs reliable collection systems that reach underserved communities. It also needs waste facilities capable of handling different categories of materials safely. Furthermore, local authorities require accurate data to determine how much waste communities generate, where it comes from and how it should be managed.

Without reliable data, planning becomes guesswork.

Enforcement Must Match Policy

Nigeria already has environmental laws, regulations and institutional structures. The more difficult question is whether they are being consistently implemented.

NESREA’s statutory role includes enforcing environmental laws, standards, guidelines and regulations, as well as relevant international environmental agreements.

That mandate must translate into visible compliance.

Where businesses violate disposal rules, enforcement should be predictable. Where producers have responsibilities under EPR, those obligations should be measurable. Where waste operators fail to meet required standards, regulatory authorities need effective mechanisms for intervention.

At the same time, enforcement should not become the only strategy. Communities need affordable and accessible alternatives to indiscriminate disposal. Otherwise, punishment alone may struggle to change behaviour where formal waste services remain inadequate.

The Road to a Cleaner Nigeria

Ultimately, Nigeria’s waste crisis cannot be solved by one ministry, one agency or one sanitation campaign.

Households must change disposal practices. Businesses must reduce waste and support recovery systems. Producers must take greater responsibility for the materials they introduce into the market. Local authorities need functional collection and disposal systems. Regulators must enforce environmental standards. Investors must see recycling and resource recovery as viable businesses.

Above all, policymakers must connect these pieces into one coherent system.

The stakes extend beyond cleaner streets. Poorly managed waste can damage ecosystems, affect public health, worsen flooding and squander materials that could support new economic activity. The World Bank notes that poorly managed waste can intensify pollution, greenhouse-gas emissions and resource losses, while stronger systems can create economic and employment opportunities.

Nigeria therefore faces a choice about how it treats waste: as an unavoidable burden to be repeatedly cleared away, or as a resource that can be recovered, traded and reused.

The second approach will not succeed through slogans alone. It will require infrastructure, financing, reliable data, enforcement, public education, producer responsibility and sustained political commitment.

Until those elements begin to operate together, Nigeria may continue to clean the same streets without solving the system that keeps making them dirty.