By Bamidele Adeleye

Environmental advocates, waste managers, recycling practitioners and private sector operators have called for stronger policy enforcement, increased investment, long term financing, improved infrastructure and greater use of technology to unlock Nigeria’s recycling potential and turn its growing waste stream into economic value.

The call was made at the fifth Cycling Lagos Webinar held on Thursday, September 3, 2026, ahead of the fifth edition of Cycling Lagos scheduled for Saturday, September 12, at the National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos.

The webinar, themed “Trash to Treasure: Unlocking Recycling Capacity for a Sustainable Future,” brought together experts and stakeholders to examine the challenges limiting recycling in Nigeria and the steps required to expand capacity, strengthen the circular economy and create more economic opportunities from waste.

Speaking at the event, National President of the Association of Waste Managers of Nigeria (AWAMN), Dr Olugbenga Adebola, said Nigeria needed to stop treating waste only as an environmental problem and begin to recognise it as an economic resource.

“Waste is not waste unless you waste it. For a very long time, whether in Lagos, across Nigeria or across the continent of Africa, we have been wasting our waste,” he said.

Adebola said accurate data was critical to effective waste management planning, particularly in Lagos, where he argued that existing estimates might not reflect the actual volume of waste being generated.

He said planning for about 13,000 metric tonnes of waste when actual generation exceeds 20,000 metric tonnes would create serious gaps in collection, transportation, processing and disposal infrastructure.

Although about 18 per cent of waste generated in Lagos is currently recycled, Adebola said the figure remained low considering the enormous quantity of recyclable materials entering the waste stream.

He acknowledged the pioneering role of Lagos State in waste recovery and recycling, including the promotion of the Three Rs, Reduce, Reuse and Recycle, but identified infrastructure, financing and policy implementation as major constraints to the growth of the sector.

According to him, waste management and recycling are highly capital intensive businesses and require affordable long term financing if private investors are to commit substantial funds to the industry.

“I have invested hundreds of millions of naira into recycling, and I am not making what I am supposed to be making. If I had gone to the bank to borrow the money, I would be in trouble today,” Adebola said.

He advocated financing arrangements lasting between 10 and 15 years, arguing that short term commercial bank loans and high interest rates were unsuitable for businesses that require huge capital outlay before returns can be realised.

Adebola cited the cost of a new compactor, which he said could exceed N150 million, as an indication of the scale of investment required in waste management.

He therefore called for stronger government and private sector collaboration, including long term concession agreements that would give investors enough certainty to commit substantial capital to waste collection, processing and recycling infrastructure.

The AWAMN president also disclosed that members of the association had collectively contributed to the creation of more than 30,000 direct and indirect jobs in Lagos through waste collection, transportation, vehicle maintenance and other related activities.

He noted that workers operating behind collection trucks also played an important role in recovering recyclable materials, accounting for a significant proportion of materials retrieved from the waste stream in Lagos.

Director of Sahara Group Foundation, Chidilim Menakaya, called for increased investment in recycling infrastructure, technology, financing and public education.

Menakaya, who spoke on “Trash to Treasure: The Role of the Private Sector in Unlocking Recycling Capacity for a Sustainable Future,” said the country’s growing waste stream should be regarded as both an environmental challenge and an economic opportunity.

“Most of this waste is actually wasted instead of being turned into opportunities,” she said.

She said the recycling value chain required coordinated investment in collection systems, sorting and recovery facilities, recycling trucks, processing plants, technology and reliable off takers.

According to her, government has a responsibility to provide the right policy environment, while the private sector must bring capital and investment into the sector.

“The government has a part to play in ensuring that we have the right policies, while the private sector brings capital and investment,” she said.

Menakaya, however, cautioned that infrastructure and investment alone would not solve Nigeria’s recycling problem without a corresponding change in public behaviour.

“If the public do not understand the reason why they have to recycle, there is no need for you to put infrastructure in place,” she said.

She called for stronger community education and sensitisation to help Nigerians understand the environmental, personal and economic benefits of recycling.

Menakaya also urged entrepreneurs and young people to consider waste collection and aggregation as viable businesses, noting that many people had yet to appreciate the commercial opportunities available in that part of the value chain.

“A lot of people have not understood that collection is a big business and that collection is a profitable business,” she said.

She advocated increased financing for viable recycling businesses and youth led green enterprises, as well as improved access to land, technology, infrastructure and appropriate standards.

According to her, government could assist operators by making suitable land available for recycling businesses, thereby reducing one of the major operating costs in the sector.

Menakaya also highlighted the role of technology in improving the efficiency of recycling operations. She disclosed that Sahara Group Foundation operates an in house recycling dashboard that enables partners and communities to monitor recycling data in real time across different hubs and locations.

She cited reverse vending machines and other technologies capable of improving the collection, sorting and cleaning of recyclable materials.

However, she advised entrepreneurs not to wait until they could afford expensive technology before entering the sector.

“Start small, and see how you can then scale up,” she advised, adding that strategic partnerships could help businesses overcome logistical challenges, including the movement of recyclable materials from collection points to aggregation and processing facilities.

Regional Coordinator, South West Division of the Recyclers Association of Nigeria (RAN), Princess Florence Oluwafeyikemi Egbeyemi, said Nigeria needed to fundamentally change its approach to recycling by moving beyond waste collection to industrial transformation.

Speaking on “The Role of Recycling in Nigeria’s Circular Economy,” Egbeyemi said recycling should be treated not merely as a sanitation programme but as industrial policy, urban infrastructure and a means of securing raw materials.

“The question is: how do we move from simply collecting waste to transforming it into reliable industrial value? That is the journey from waste collection to industrial transformation,” she said.

According to her, Nigeria is generating enormous quantities of materials while industries simultaneously require reliable raw materials, creating an opportunity to link waste recovery directly with industrial production.

She said the real measure of success should not simply be the quantity of waste collected but the volume of recovered materials transformed into specification grade feedstock that industries are willing to purchase.

“Waste becomes material. Material becomes feedstock. Feedstock becomes product. And product creates value,” she said.

Egbeyemi identified poor product design, inadequate source separation, inefficient collection and logistics, contamination, insufficient processing equipment, energy challenges, inadequate working capital and unstable markets as some of the points where value is lost across the recycling chain.

She proposed what she described as a simple investment equation: predictable feedstock, predictable quality and a predictable buyer equal bankability.

She also called for better implementation of Extended Producer Responsibility, saying EPR funding should be tied to measurable outcomes rather than activities alone.

According to her, stakeholders should be able to determine how much material was recovered, its quality, where it went and the economic and environmental outcomes generated from the process.

Egbeyemi urged stakeholders to recognise the informal recycling sector as an existing component of Nigeria’s recycling infrastructure rather than attempting to eliminate it.

She said waste pickers, collectors, aggregators and traders already perform critical functions in the recycling value chain and should instead be upgraded and professionalised through contracts, traceability systems, protective equipment, training, access to finance and improved digital records.

“A successful circular economy should create more productive, safer and more dignified jobs,” she said.

She further advocated material specific recycling strategies, noting that plastics, metals, paper, organics, electronic waste and construction waste require different technologies, infrastructure, standards and business models.

Egbeyemi proposed a South West regional circular economy model linking Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Ondo and Ekiti, with households and businesses generating materials, collection systems recovering them, aggregation hubs consolidating them, processors transforming them and manufacturers purchasing the resulting materials.

She said the South West could serve as a demonstration corridor for an integrated circular economy model that could later be replicated across Nigeria.

Looking ahead, she proposed a long term pathway under which Nigeria could focus by 2031 on building infrastructure of trust, move towards circular manufacturing by 2036 and make circularity an integral part of the operating system of Nigerian cities and industries by 2051.

She stressed that the timelines were proposed ambitions rather than existing government targets.

Egbeyemi also urged Nigeria to position itself as a potential African circular materials hub, taking advantage of its large domestic market, manufacturing base, young workforce, recoverable material flows and opportunities created by the African Continental Free Trade Area.

“Circularity should become a competitiveness strategy, not simply a compliance burden,” she said.

She identified data, source separation, infrastructure, finance, markets and people as the six critical pillars required to build a functioning circular economy.

“If any one of these pillars fails, the chain becomes weaker. The execution principle I would leave with investors, policymakers and operators is simple: build the weakest link first,” she said.

She added: “We are not running out of waste. We are running out of time to waste it.”

The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Mountains Energy Solutions Ltd, Engr. Olusegun Okedoye, identified weak policy enforcement, inadequate infrastructure, limited public awareness and cultural attitudes towards waste as major barriers to unlocking Nigeria’s recycling potential.

Okedoye acknowledged that government had introduced several policies aimed at improving waste management and recycling but said the major challenge remained implementation and enforcement.

“Government has a lot of policies, there is no doubt about it, but the enforcement of those policies is nearly non existent,” he said.

He called for a sustainable infrastructure development programme that would go beyond one off government interventions and provide a comprehensive, adequately funded and consistently implemented framework for waste segregation, collection, processing and recycling.

According to him, Nigeria also needs to change its cultural perception of waste by making waste management and recycling education part of the national consciousness.

“We need to get the concept of waste management synchronised into our consciousness, from primary school to tertiary institutions, and have a reorientation shift. It is not completely left to government. Everybody must be involved,” he said.

Okedoye advocated sustained environmental education and public sensitisation from the grassroots, arguing that Nigerians should understand not only how to dispose of waste responsibly but also the economic opportunities embedded in the recycling value chain.

He also called for stronger collaboration between Nigerian businesses and international technology companies to facilitate technology transfer, improve processing capacity and strengthen local expertise.

According to him, a predictable policy environment, fiscal alignment, foreign exchange stability, ease of capital movement and the ability to repatriate investment returns would help attract more domestic and foreign investment into Nigeria’s recycling sector.

In his opening remarks, President and Chief Executive Officer of Cycling Africa Limited and Convener of Cycling Lagos, Bamidele Adeleye, said the “Trash to Treasure” theme was inspired by the need to address Lagos’ growing waste challenge while drawing attention to the economic opportunities within the recycling value chain.

Adeleye said Lagos generates millions of tonnes of waste annually, including a significant volume of plastic waste, stressing that the challenge should not be viewed solely as an environmental burden.

He said a substantial portion of the waste stream could be recovered, recycled, reused and transformed into economic value, creating opportunities for businesses, jobs and sustainable development.

According to him, Cycling Lagos has always been more than a sporting event, using cycling as a platform to promote healthy living, environmental consciousness, sustainable transportation and stronger communities.

He explained that the “Trash to Treasure” campaign represents an extension of that vision, using sport and community engagement to stimulate conversations and practical action around environmental sustainability and the future of Nigerian cities.

Adeleye urged participants and other stakeholders to translate the discussions into concrete action, stressing that the waste generated daily represents not only an environmental challenge but also an economic opportunity waiting to be unlocked.

The webinar was moderated by Clara Okoro, former Chairman of the Brand Journalists’ Association of Nigeria and Managing Director of Brand World TV.

The 2026 edition of Cycling Lagos will hold on Saturday, September 12, at the National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos, and is expected to attract cyclists, environmental enthusiasts, corporate organisations, government representatives and other stakeholders.

The fifth Cycling Lagos is organised by Cycling Africa Limited in collaboration with the Lagos State Cycling Association. Union Bank of Nigeria Plc is the sponsor, while AIICO Multishield Limited, Checkers Custard, Flour Mills of Nigeria Plc, Stanbic IBTC and BrandEscort are among the supporting organisations.

For sponsorship, partnership and participation enquiries, interested individuals and organisations can visit www.cyclinglagos.com or contact info@cyclinglagos.com.