SON, stakeholders develop standards for recycled plastic bottles

Fri, Oct 11, 2019
By publisher
2 MIN READ

Business Briefs

THE Standards Organisation of Nigeria, SON, is collaborating with other stakeholders in the food industry to develop a standard for recycled plastic bottles. Osita Aboloma, director-general of SON, said the move was coming on the heels of a recent coordination by the federal ministry of environment to develop a national policy for the life cycle of plastics in the country.

Speaking at a technical committee meeting on polymer and related products in Lagos, Aboloma said the standard would improve production processes of plastics, ensure safety and the quality of products. According to him, this will lead to an increase of its use which in turn provides opportunities for employment.

Aboloma, who was represented by Chinyere Egwuonwu, director, standards development, SON, said the collaboration would also give consumers and producers the confidence that the products and services they were developing or using were safe, reliable, while also keeping the environmental safe. “The recycling of pet bottles packaging represents one of the most successful and wide spread examples of plastic packaging recycling.

“The growth in collection and processing of pet bottles for food packaging application has been increasing significantly over the last 10 years. This has been accomplished by significant investments in plastic recovery facilities and food grade recycled pet processing. The food and beverage recycling association of Nigeria remains the driving force for the development of this standard.

“Today, we have a draft national policy on life cycle of plastics with recycling of plastic waste as one of the strategies. The draft policy has been extensively discussed by all relevant stakeholders, and it is currently being processed for approval by the relevant government agency,” he said.

Aboloma urged stakeholders to study the document and come up with a workable standard that would guide manufacturers, promote trade and assist regulation to guarantee acceptability without compromising the safety of the product.

– Oct 11, 2019 @ 15:19 GMT |

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