NESREA urges industries to comply with EPR programme

The Director General of National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA), Dr. Lawrence Anukam, has said that it is mandatory for all industries and production outlets in the country to comply fully with the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) Programme.

Dr. Anukam said the provisions for regulating and enforcing the EPR programme were already contained in the NESREA regulations on the brown environment.

Speaking in his office while receiving a team from the Nigeria Bottling Company lead by the Managing Director, Georgios Polymenakos, in his office recently, he said the EPR, which is the idea behind circular economy, is the acceptable practice all over the world to promote recycling and minimize waste from industries.

“The production process comes with some form of waste. The idea of EPR is to reduce these wastes, ensure eco-efficiency and promote environmentally friendly products and designs. The old concept of cradle to grave has gone and it is now cradle to cradle,” he said.

He added that it was important to ensure that no industry was left behind in the EPR process, noting that NESREA, as an agency, was prepared to do all that is needed to ensure smooth take off of the programme.

“We must protect the environment. We must ensure that we stop any machine, equipment or activity that undermines the environmental quality,” he said.

Speaking, Polymenakos said the visit was to support the environmental ideals being propagated by the agency.