The Food and Beverage Recycling Alliance (FBRA) has appointed Agharese (Arese) Lucia Onaghise, as the Executive Secretary of the Alliance to drive its ambitious goal towards building a sustainable recycling economy for food and beverage packaging waste in Nigeria.
With the new position, she holds the mandate to drive the various campaigns and initiatives of FBRA as a Producer Responsibility Organisation (PRO) to fruition, with her wealth of experience.
This would further strengthen the recovery of food and beverage packaging waste in compliance with the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) policy of the Federal Government.
Arese, is a thorough bred Eco-Consultant, with a postgraduate in Environmental Technology from Imperial College, London. She also holds a B.Sc. Degree in Microbiology, from University of Ilorin, Kwara State.
She has over 17 years cognate experience which cuts across Health Safety Environmental Consulting, Non-Governmental Organisation, Local Authority, Manufacturing, Telecommunications, Oil and Gas.
Prior to her new role at FBRA, she was Project Safety Health and Environmental Manager at Delta Afrik Engineering / Worley on the Mobil Producing Nigeria Projects then served as a Waste Minimisation/ Recycling Advisor at Hyder Consulting; Waste Watch and Business Eco Group in the United Kingdom; she also had a stint as Technical Officer at World Health Organisation, in Bonn, Germany.
She was also a Research Assistant at Imperial College, London and an Environmental Analyst Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
Commenting on Arese’s appointment, FBRA’s Vice Chairman, Adekunle Olusuyi, affirmed that it is necessary at this time of intensified efforts on community campaigns on waste management, which involves proper waste disposal and separation, recycling initiatives, environmental conservation and collaboration with various State Governments on cleaner and litre free environment
He said to further strengthen the role of the Alliance, FBRA has ensured that its executive secretary would coordinate its activities to attain the desired goals, as a Producer Responsibility Organisation (PRO)for the food and beverage sector. We are excited about the positive impact this will have on our industry, and the nation at large.
On her part, the Executive Secretary pledged to effectively drive the initiatives of FBRA to enviable heights, taking cognisance of the accolades it has received from stakeholders in the waste management sector, Lagos State Government and the National Environmental Standard Regulatory Enforcement Agency (NESREA).
Founded in December 2013, FBRA has membership drawn from responsible and forward-thinking companies which includes Nigerian Bottling Company Limited/Coca-Cola Nigeria Limited, Nigerian Breweries Plc, Seven-Up Bottling Company Limited, Nestle Nigeria Plc, Guinness Nigeria Plc, IntercontinentalDistillers Limited, International Breweries Limited, Tulip Cocoa, and Prima Caps and Preforms.
With its collection partners, RecyclePoints, West African Energy and Chanjadati among others, FBRA has been embarking on enlightenment campaigns in curbing environmental pollution caused by food and beverage packaging waste, promoting proper disposal and separation of plastics that have in some ways contributed to flooding in Nigerian cities.