Nestlé Nigeria is committed to environmental sustainability

Nestlé Nigeria is committed to environmental sustainability

Oluwatoyin Mathnuel 

 To work towards its vision of a waste-free future, Nestlé Nigeria takes necessary actions 

to promote behavioral changes, and to build a circular ecosystem in waste management, 

starting from the company’s employees and extending to the communities closest to its 

operations and to a wider audience across Nigeria. 

With a strong commitment to help protect, renew and restore the environment, the 

company is implementing many initiatives promoting Environmental Sustainability.

In 2022, Nestlé Nigeria launched her employee plastics collection scheme which inspires 

staff to protect the environment and combat plastic pollution by inculcating the habit of 

sorting wastes at source and recycling for sustainable environmental management.

Through the scheme, employees return all plastic materials, not limited to the company’s 

brands, and earn points culminating in exciting rewards and management recognitions. 

Over the years, the company has partnered with the Lagos Business School 

Sustainability Centre on the “Advancing Nutrition, Health and Environmental Awareness 

through the Media” training which equips journalists to effectively communicate and 

educate the Nigerian populace on global best practices and lifestyle choices that impact 

everyday living and carry out fact-based reporting on nutrition, health, wellness, the 

environment, climate change, and corporate sustainability practices.

Nestlé has also extended her education campaign to the younger generations through the 

Sustainability Training for Kids which enables children imbibe a sustainability mindset   

from an early age, thereby preparing them to become better stewards of the planet. The 

training implemented in collaboration with the International Climate Change 

Development Initiative (ICCDI), furnishes children with information on waste 

management, introduces them to the conversion of waste to useful items, and 

encourages them to adopt positive behavioral changes to enhance environmental 

sustainability. The children are also taught sorting of waste at source with the donation of 

segregated bins to participating schools.  

In Nigeria where we have a nascent waste collection system, poorly managed waste ends 

up in waterways and clogs drainages, exacerbating the environmental hazards, including 

flooding which we are increasingly experiencing due to the effects of climate change. 

Data shows that Nigeria generates more than 32 million tons of waste per year with Lagos 

alone producing about 10,000 metric tons of waste daily. Addressing the plastic waste 

challenge requires behavior change from all and Nestlé believes that there is no better 

place to start than from within.

Nestlé Nigeria is therefore collaborating internally and with external stakeholders to 

address the waste challenge in line with the company’s global vision that none of its postconsumer packaging waste ends up in waterways or as litter in the environment.

The World Clean-Up Day commemorated annually in September, provides a platform for 

Nestlé’s employees to help promote awareness on environmentally sound waste 

management practices for a clean, safe and sustainable planet. Every year, volunteers 

under Nestlé Cares, the company’s global employee volunteering initiative, collaborate 

with the Africa Clean-Up Initiative (ACI), an NGO passionate about raising environmentally 

responsible citizens, for clean-up, sensitization and advocacy on Environmental 

Sustainability.

This year, over 400 Nestlé employees joined the campaign by visiting twelve markets 

across the country. The clean-up exercise executed in Lagos, Kano, Port Harcourt, 

Sagamu, Ibadan, Jos, Abuja, Awka, Ota, Agbara, Enugu and Abaji, was powered by 

MAGGI, one of Nestlé’s leading brands. 

Nestlé Nigeria’s Corporate Communications and Public Affairs Manager, Victoria 

Uwadoka, said, “At Nestlé, we are taking concrete actions to protect, renew and restore 

the environment every day. We are conscious that indiscriminate waste disposal coupled 

with limited recovery services aggravate the waste crisis. We also recognize that creating 

awareness through advocacy is necessary on our journey towards a waste free future. 

Our priorities therefore, include improving post consumption plastic waste management 

by motivating behavioral changes and creating an efficient recovery system in 

collaboration with other industry and community stakeholders. We are also accelerating 

sustainability education through our employees, the media, our communities and children 

in our Nestlé for healthier Kids beneficiary schools. The market clean-up exercises are one 

of the ways we have sustained our efforts of improving our environment over the past 5 

years. 

According to Dr Alexander Akhigbe, Founder/CEO African Clean-Up Initiative, 

“Participating in clean-up exercises is a great way to get involved and make a difference 

in keeping our environment clean and healthy for everyone. At African Clean-Up Initiative, 

we are passionate about raising environmentally responsible citizens and communities, 

working for the highest good of the Planet. For this year’s exercise, we ensured the proper 

management of over 6,660kg of solid waste and 79kg of recyclables collected across all 

the locations, so that they do not end up back in the environment. We are honored to be 

working with Nestlé Nigeria as her implementing partners for this year’s event”. 

Comrade Aremu Komolafe, member of the Ojuwoye market committee in Mushin, Lagos 

State expressed his pleasure with volunteers from Nestlé Nigeria who joined the traders 

and market leaders to clean up the popular market in South-West Nigeria. According to 

him, with the significant amount of waste generated daily due to large number of visitors 

and traders buying and selling, the burden of keeping the market clean is huge. To 

mitigate the situation, every Thursdays is designated by the Lagos State government for 

market clean-up and sensitization of shop and stall owners on the need for proper waste 

disposal. He said that the cleanup initiative by Nestlé Nigeria will support these 

environmental sanitation efforts. 

Nestlé Nigeria is a leading member of the Food and Beverage Recycling Alliance (FBRA), 

an Industry collaboration aimed at driving post consumption waste management and 

recycling. Volunteers from the company also joined the FBRA led clean-up initiatives for 

the World Clean-Up Day.

Through the Nestlé Cares platform, employees have the opportunity to give back to the 

society, impacting individuals and families, communities and the environment, by 

volunteering their time, resources and talents. 

The company says it will continue to play her part to ensure a cleaner and healthier 

environment across her operating locations, helping to create a more sustainable world