Plastic waste management

This paper explores plastic waste management. It aims to develop our understanding of the challenges of mitigating plastic waste pollution which is one crucial environmental struggle in Lagos, Nigeria. This paper aims to intensely understand these challenges with a proposed question: “In what ways have the operations of the Lagos Waste Management Authority and the attitudes of the residents influenced plastic waste pollution in Lagos State”. This study was conducted through a comprehensive analysis encompassing four dimensions: causes of ineffectiveness of LAWMA, operational practices adopted to mitigate plastic waste pollution, the attitude of individuals towards plastic waste disposal and possible solutions to this persisting problem in Lagos state. The study was carried out through a survey and semi-structured interviews across Kosofe, Alimosho, and Surulere local government area. The research findings revealed that the operational practices of LAWMA are not effective enough to mitigate plastic waste pollution due to the organization’s lack of infrastructural facilities, lack of funding, late collection practices, and lack of effective environmental sanitation. These and, other problems have curtailed the success of the objectives for a clean environmentally sustainable Lagos. The study also discovered that individual users are major contributors to plastic waste pollution in Lagos due to their carefree attitudes towards plastic items usage and disposals which constitute environmental degradation. In conclusion, various factors such as overpopulation, illegal plastic waste disposals, poor managerial practices by LAWMA, and lack of effective environmental policies are the challenges of mitigating plastic waste pollution in Lagos State.