Nigeria’s largest container terminal, APM Terminals Apapa said it is reducing plastic waste at the Lagos port by more than 400,000 bottles per year.
The company stated this while observing the 2021 annual Go Green Initiative from October 25 to 30, 2021.
Go Green is an awareness building program initiated by the Global Ports Group (GPG), an association of port and terminal operators, collaborating on key Environmental, Health, Safety and Security topics.
APM Terminals Apapa said this year, it is focused on reducing its plastic footprint by replacing single-use plastic bottled water with re-fill bottles and water dispensers, thereby eliminating an annual waste of 408,800 single-use plastic bottles.
Commenting on the initiative, the Country Manager of APM Terminals Nigeria, Klaus Laursen, said, “At APM Terminals we take our responsibility towards the environment very serious; towards the community today, towards the future and our kids. Every year we give ourselves as employees an opportunity to contribute with our Go Green Campaign. This is our chance to give back.
“We will do this, this year and will continue to do it in the future. And we can use our LEAN waste methodology, our approach to always improve and always reduce our impact on the environment. We owe that to ourselves, we owe that to our kids, and we owe that to the future.”
Also speaking, the Procurement Manager of APM Terminals Apapa, Chinyere Adenaike, said the now has ensured that employees drink clean water without further harm to the environment.
“Everyday at APM Terminals Apapa, our employees consume 1,120 units of plastic bottled water. That is a massive churn out from a single community of workers. We may not be able to change how the outer world creates environmental pollution caused by plastic waste but we definitely resolve not to contribute to that any longer,” she said.
Adenaike further stated that in order to reduce the company’s plastic footprint, water dispensers have been placed all over the terminal to drastically cut down waste generated from single-use plastic water bottles. She said the company also distributed 1,300 branded refill bottles to employees and contractors working at the terminal, enabling them refill their bottles from the dispensers.
“The future of our unborn children depend on this and so that compels us not only to make it work but sustained,” Adenaike added.
Gbenga Odeyemi of the Operation Labour Management unit said the replacement of bottled water with dispenser water has helped in reducing plastic waste at the terminal.
“The problem of picking empty bottled water around the terminal, constituting nuisance and all that has been eliminated or perhaps limited because we cannot eliminate waste like that but we can limit it,” he said.
Mobile Equipment Supervisor, Okon Anthony, also commended the initiative, which he said would contribute to reducing plastic wastes at the port.
APM Terminals Apapa has remained committed to the Go Green campaign since it was launched six years ago. In 2018, the staff of APM Terminals Apapa cleaned up and removed plastic wastes from Ogogoro Island – a riverine community in Lagos, while in 2019, in partnership with the Lagos State Waste Management Agency (LAWMA), it carried out a cleanup exercise to clear the heaps of refuse on Apapa-Wharf Road. It also donated waste bins.
