The Lagos State Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) has disclosed that the state government will commence the enforcement of the usage of waste bins by households in January 2023. The Managing Director of LAWMA, Ibrahim Odumboni, at a meeting of the Association of Waste Managers of Nigeria (AWAMN) Annual General Meeting in Lagos, said that the state will enforce the law which stipulates a minimum fine of N50,000 and maximum of three months imprisonment for individuals or homes who do not use waste bins in disposing wastes.
The LAWMA managing director said that the state government has prescribed two waste bins for every household in the state, for plastics and the other for organic waste, so as to facilitate the sorting of waste, noting that this is a step toward circular economy. He added that LAWMA would collaborate with AWAMN to ensure that households used bins to dispose the waste they generated appropriately.
The managing director said that the authority had printed out the first batch of 250,000 abatement notices, and from Oct. 1 would issue them to households that do not own bins.
According to Odumboni, “So, we are going to enforce it now. We are going to give them a notice on October 1 and then by January 1, 2023, the three months period has gone, we then start enforcing.
“Everybody must have a bin, as it is the beginning of the problem and the end of the problem to waste management.
“We have noticed that over a million households don’t have bins at all, and that is the genesis of our problem.
“I want to task every one of us here, so that by the time we come to our meeting next year, we can report that 90 per cent of the households under each and every one of us have a bin.
”It is our duty to ensure that we promote bins to them, we have to make sure that all the households under us have a bin, be it that they are going to pay for it as part of their waste bill, be it that they are going to buy now and pay later, be it that they are going to buy their own, it is mandatory for them to have the bins.”
He urged the waste managers to promote the use of the wheelie bin, as it would help to enhance the efficiency of the job.