NESREA Moves To Integrate Informal Waste Workers Into Recycling Chain

The National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA) has unveiled a fresh strategy aimed at integrating thousands of informal waste pickers, collectors and recyclers into Nigeria’s formal recycling and environmental management system through a Cooperative-Led Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) model.

Director-General of National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency, Professor Innocent Barikor, disclosed this during a virtual stakeholders’ sensitisation programme on the Cooperative-Led EPR Model organised by the agency for key actors in the EPR value chain.

Barikor said the initiative was designed to close the long-standing exclusion gap within Nigeria’s waste management ecosystem by formally recognising and empowering informal waste workers who play a major role in recycling activities across the country.

According to him, the new framework will organise waste collectors, sorters and recyclers into legally recognised cooperatives, enabling them to access financing, social protection schemes, digital identity systems, governance structures and environmental compliance support.

He noted that the move would not only strengthen Nigeria’s EPR implementation but also improve environmental accountability and data management within the recycling sector.

“The Cooperative-Led EPR Model presents an opportunity to organise waste actors into recognised cooperatives, provide them with legal identity, digital inclusion, financial access and social protection, while simultaneously strengthening national EPR implementation and environmental data systems,” Barikor stated.

The NESREA boss described the initiative as both an environmental and socio-economic reform strategy capable of transforming the livelihoods of thousands operating within the informal waste economy.

He explained that through digital onboarding systems, traceability mechanisms and the proposed Cooperative Passport framework, informal workers would gradually transition into the formal economy with access to enterprise support, financial literacy programmes, health insurance, equipment leasing and other empowerment opportunities.

In a presentation at the meeting, Chief Steward of the Nigeria Environmental Stewardship Cooperative Society, Dr. Peter Ayim, said the cooperative-led framework offers Nigeria a sustainable pathway towards building an inclusive circular economy.

Ayim observed that informal waste workers currently face numerous structural barriers, including lack of formal recognition, economic vulnerability, occupational hazards, poor health and safety conditions, and social exclusion.

He cited successful implementation of similar models in countries such as Brazil, Colombia, India and South Africa, as well as several European Union member states, stressing that global experience has shown cooperative-led systems to be among the most effective mechanisms for integrating informal waste actors into structured EPR frameworks.

“Global experience confirms that cooperative-led systems are the most effective pathway for integrating informal waste actors into structured EPR frameworks, delivering both environmental sustainability and inclusive economic growth,” he said.

Stakeholders at the meeting included representatives of the Recyclers Association of Nigeria, Food and Beverage Recycling Alliance, E-Waste Producers Responsibility Organization of Nigeria and Rural Women Energy Security, among others.