By Humphrey Ukeaja
The sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) industry loves a good photograph. A group of people in bright shirts gather on a beach, collecting bottles into neat bags. The picture travels online, framed as proof of corporate care for the planet. In Nigeria, these companies are often celebrated, and they never tire of vaunting about their corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives. Yet behind these green campaigns lies a harsher truth. The same corporations that present themselves as environmental saviours are among the largest drivers of ecosystem damage and worsening public health.
Plastic waste illustrates the scale of this contradiction. Nigeria is ranked the ninth-highest contributor to global plastic pollution, generating about 2.5 million tonnes every year, according to USAID. Of this, a staggering 88 percent goes unrecycled, threatening ecosystems, marine life, and public health. Lagos alone produces about 870,000 tonnes of plastic waste annually, which accounts for 15 percent of the city’s total waste, with more than half reportedly dumped into the Atlantic Ocean. Much of this waste comes from single-use plastics, including the millions of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles churned out by the beverage industry.
Globally, multinational soda companies are consistently ranked among the world’s top plastic polluters. In 2018 alone, out of an estimated 445 billion litres of beverages sold in PET bottles, between 21 and 34 billion bottles entered oceans worldwide, equating to roughly 1.1 million metric tons of beverage-related waste. Beyond pollution, the production, transportation, and disposal of these bottles generate significant carbon footprint, aggravating climate change. Interestingly, rather than confront their outsized role, these companies routinely deflect responsibility, framing the crisis as a matter of consumer “littering” instead of acknowledging their industrial-scale plastic dependency. And while beverage firms in Nigeria may promote recycling initiatives, the reality is that the country’s recycling capacity remains narrowly concentrated and grossly inadequate to confront the scale of its plastic waste.
The government has committed to increasing recycled PET content in bottles from the current 3 percent to 25 percent by 2029, an ambition tied to its Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) framework. Nigeria has already adopted EPR through national guidelines, and the soon-to-be-gazetted National Environmental (Plastic Waste Control) Regulations is expected to expand this framework and make producer responsibility legally binding.
On paper, these rules require beverage and packaging companies to finance waste collection, recycling, and recovery through Producer Responsibility Organisations (PROs). In practice, however, recycling facilities remain limited and clustered in a few urban centres, while many producers continue to treat compliance as optional. By contrast, France has enforced EPR since the 1990s and now recycles 67 percent of household packaging and 27 percent of plastics overall, which is clear evidence that robust enforcement, institutional oversight, and sustained infrastructure investment can deliver measurable results. Until Nigeria develops a comparable nationwide system—expanding infrastructure beyond a few cities, integrating the informal recycling economy, and compelling corporations to reduce single-use plastic at source—its recycling promises will remain largely rhetorical.
An equally pressing but often overlooked aspect of industry harm is the health impacts of SSBs. These products are closely linked with non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as type 2 diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular illnesses, which already account for nearly 29 percent of deaths in Nigeria. The economic burden of these diseases is staggering, with billions of naira channeled annually into healthcare costs for treatment and management.
International evidence shows that robust taxation can reduce SSB consumption. Studies across Asia and Africa report declines ranging from 2.5 percent to 19 percent, alongside product reformulations that lowered sugar content by up to 43.6 percent. One study found that reduced soft drink intake corresponded with up to a 32 percent lower risk of obesity. Yet, Nigeria’s SSB tax remains low at 10 Naira per litre, among the lowest in the world, and faces persistent industry pushback, which continues to limit its public health impact.
The evidence from other countries points to a clear path forward. Where governments have enforced strong pro-public health taxes alongside producer responsibility policies, both environmental and health outcomes have improved. France demonstrates what can be achieved with strict oversight and infrastructure investment, while places like Mexico and South Africa show that taxation can cut consumption and spur product reformulation.
Furthermore, EPR regimes have demonstrably nudged some producers toward lighter, more recyclable, and more reuse-friendly materials, setting the foundation for deeper change in production practice.
These lessons matter for Nigeria, where the twin crises of plastic pollution and diet-related diseases are stretching ecosystems and hospitals to their limits. Without decisive action, the green campaigns of the sugary beverage industry will remain little more than an effective veil and clever advertising, masking continued plastic pollution and worsening public health under the guise of sustainability.
Ukeaja is a healthy food advocate and Industry Monitoring Officer at Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA).