Nigeria's plastic policies fail because of vague rules, study finds

Nigeria, one of the world's largest contributors to plastic pollution, is striving to adopt Circular Public Policies for Plastics (CPPPs) but struggles to effectively address the issue. CPPPs, government activities that aid the plastic circular economy such as plastic bans are globally recognized as a crucial tool to advance the circular economy. Although Nigeria demonstrates strong political will through efforts like national plastic strategies, policy implementation lags and less than 10% of plastic is recycled, statistics on other circular options are unavailable. Literature shows that policy content significantly influences its implementation, but is understudied for plastics circular economy, especially for Global South countries like Nigeria. This paper asks how Nigerian policymakers can improve their CPPPs’ content to improve implementation. Nigeria’s CPPPs adopted between 1985 – 2020 were reviewed and evaluated for 4 content dimensions 1) ambiguities, 2) objectives, 3) instrument type, and 4) implementors. Results shows that policy content can be improved through 1) removing ambiguities by providing clear definitions, qualitative or quantitative standards, and explicit priorities, 2) expanding policy objectives beyond waste collection to include other lifecycle stages such as plastic production and recycling and specific material types 3) adopting diverse policy instruments that cater to local needs by addressing multiple policy objectives such as Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), and 4) engaging all lifecycle stakeholders as key actors to support policy implementation such as the private sector and local communities. The study offers valuable insights to Global South countries on developing comprehensive policies that can advance multiple Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and address plastic pollution systematically.