STRATEGIES
FOR ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGAINST FOOD PACKAGING WASTES IN ENUGU STATE
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study.
Food packaging materials can be seen as means of
food preservation and protection. Dele (2012) stated that food packaging
materials provide a means to preserve, protect, merchandise, market and
distribute foods. According to Wikipedia (2013), food packaging provides
protection, tampering
resistance, and special physical, chemical, or biological needs. World
packaging organisation (WPO, 2012), stated that food packaging is an essential
medium for preserving the food quality and minimising food wastage. The
packaging serves the important function of containing the food, protecting
against chemical and physical damage (Azubuike, 2014).
Generally, the packaging material may either be
rigid or flexible. Rigid containers include glass and plastic bottles and jars,
cans, pottery, wood boxes, drums, tins, plastic pots and tubes. They give
physical protection to the food inside that is not provided by flexible pa4ckaging.
Flexible packaging on the other hand is a major group of materials that
includes plastic films, papers, foil, some types of vegetable fibres and cloths
that can be used to make wrappings, sacks and sealed or unsealed bags.
Despite the importance of food packaging on food
preservation, it has been noticed that food packaging materials constitute
about eighty percent (80%) wastes in most of the areas in Enugu state.
According to Enugu State Ministry of environment and Enugu State Environmental
Protection agency (2012), many of the materials found in refuse dumps located
in the nooks and crannies of Enugu state are food package waste. These food
packaging wastes seen in different refuse dumps include; tins, sachets,
plastics among others
Food packaging
materials becomes a waste when their contents (what they are used to protect)
have been used, expired or damaged. These food packaging wastes include; tins
and cans, sachets, plastics, woods among others littering in our environment.
According to Oduma (2013), these food packaging wastes constitutes solid wastes
in our environment. He described them to include food packaging waste,
household waste like; ashes, broken glasses, papers, old medicine, paper
packaging’s, plastic materials, timber, metal scraps, abandoned clothings,
cellophane bags, construction or demolition debris, abandoned scraped or
discarded motor vehicles etc.
When wastes are not
properly handled or disposed, they have adverse or harmful effect on human
health and also constitute environmental, social and economic hazard (Oduma,
2013). The uncontrolled fermentation of garbage creates a source of food and
habitat for bacterial growth. In the waste environment, insect, rodents, and
some bird species proliferate and acts as passive vectors in the transmission
of some infectious diseases. Which include; Cholera, (an acute intestinal
infection caused by Vibrio cholera), malaria, respiratory illness, water
pollution among others. Indiscriminate disposal of food packaging refuse dumps
leads to stinking odour that pollutes the air (oxygen) we breathe. When the
environment is littered with filthy materials, the aesthetic beauty of such
area is menaced.
Food packaging wastes
are highly noticed in the urban areas. The consequence is the pollution of the
urban environment and creation of urban slum (Oluka, 2001). In Enugu the
capital of Enugu State, indiscriminate disposal of food packaging wastes at roads,
streets, street drains, residential halls, and public places are common. And
the rate of waste generation supersedes the rate at which they are been
evacuated to the permanent disposal site.
Indiscriminate and/or
random dumping of wastes at roads, streets, or street drains leads to blockage
of roads, streets or water channels thereby hindering smooth flow of traffic
within the city. The artificial and natural water ways or drainage systems are
blocked with waste materials causing constant accumulation of stagnant water or
at times resulting in over flooding of water from its banks. These stagnant
water always breeds mosquitoes, and pile up refuse, harbours rodents and
disease causing organisms which constitute health hazards. It can be recalled
that at the peak of a rainy season in 2012, many homes, farms and landscapes in
Enugu State and other States in Nigeria were over flooded with water and were
devastated. The situation was not just because of much rainfall but because
some drainage ways were blocked with refuses which made the water to overflow
its bank. This condition rendered so many people homeless, some lives and
properties were also lost. This led to high cost of food items such as yams,
cassava, rice, garri, vegetables etc. in the affected areas. Most streets have
acquired bad reputations due to indiscriminate dumping of waste materials at
times as a result of lack of social discipline or carelessness among both users
and collectors of those refuses (Oduma, 2013).
However, proper waste
management can transform waste to wealth thereby generating employment and
reducing environmental health hazard associated with the indiscriminate dumping
of refuse. This can be done through recycling, reusing and recovery among
others. Also proper waste management can be done through imposition of
sanctions on the companies. It is on this note that the researcher tries to
find out strategies for environmental protection against food packaging in
Enugu state capital and its environs to foster healthy living of people in the
area.
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