The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority,NCAA says solutions to plastic problems in the airport environment is preventing the improper disposal and limiting the use of certain plastic items.
Speaking at the celebration of this year’s World Environmental Day with the Theme: “Beat Plastic Pollution” in Lagos organized by the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, Director General, NCAA, Captain Muktar Usman said the scale of use of plastic products over the years in the aviation environment had increased massively and caused massive pollution, adding that to improve on the environment, an effective waste management sues must be put in place to prevent pollution.
The NCAA DG represented by Mrs. Oyetun Adegbeson said,”airports are also working with airlines to ensure proper handling of recyclable materials coming off aircraft, including plastic materials”.
” The cost of removing these pollutions have proved to be prohibitive and fines for littering have proved difficult to enforce, he added.
He urged the management of FAAN to adopt policy options adopted by some countries to reduce plastic waste to the barest such as,” buy-back and public education. FAAN as the airport ” Landlord” could therefore alleviate the situation via a “zero waste” philosophy”.
Commending FAAN for putting the event together, Usman said “the primary objective of NCAA has been to create an enabling environment which will encourage and ensure dynamic growth of the aviation industry that is sustainable through safe, secure and efficient services”.
He equally advised that that all stakeholders as well as passengers passing through the airport to assist in putting an end to plastic waste with simple acts like using reusable water bottle.
In his address of welcome, Managing Director,FAAN, Saleh Dunoma said the aim of the United Nations on this year’s theme was not to pass the bulk but to reduce the statistics by proffering solutions that would be far reaching and attract commitment from all stakeholders.
The FAAN boss who was represented by FAAN’s Director of Engineering Services, Engr. Salisu Daura pointed out, that although, airports do not produce plastic products, “however, they provide avenues for installations of plastic products in form of facilities as well as selling of items packed in plastic containers, this could contribute to plastic waste generation into the immediate and the larger environment”.
“Available statistics are evidences of everyone’s contributions to this challenge. Only one sector could not have been responsible for the over 200,000 metric tonnes of plastic wastes that find their way into the water bodies every year in the country. Only one sector could not have been responsible for the ranking of Nigeria as one of the top twenty countries with the worst plastic waste management”, Dunoma added.
Commissioner, Accident Investigation Bureau, AIB, Mr. Akin Olateru said plastic pollution was a danger to the environment especially in aviation as it produces foreign object debris (FOD) which impact negatively on aviation safety.
“FOD is any article or substance alien to an aircraft or system which could potentially cause damage.
“At an airport, FOD includes those objects found in an inappropriate location that as a result of being at that location can damage equipment.
“Most common FOD items include aircraft parts, tyre fragment, mechanics tools, nails, luggage parts, broken pavement and stones but in our peculiar environment and because of the nature/habit of our disposal of products plastic can be included as an FOD,”.
The commissioner represented at the event by the General Manager, security in AIB, Mr. Olumide Osineye said the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) was concerned in improving the environmental performance of aviation which was a major challenge.
