In a bold demonstration of its commitment to environmental stewardship and a cleaner, healthier Lagos, Rite Foods Limited, a market leader in the food and beverage sector in Nigeria, has removed 40 tons of plastic waste from the city during the global Plastic Free July campaign.
The initiative was championed through its multi-award-winning Riteonthebeach project, in partnership with Pop Beach Club, a renowned Lagos eco-resort, with support from the Office of the Special Adviser to the Governor on Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)
The campaign featured vibrant community activations at the Ikeja City Mall and distributed over 30,000 recovery bags to residents, empowering them to collect and recycle plastics. This large-scale mobilisation builds on the company’s consistent beach clean-up exercises, designed to curb plastic pollution and promote a thriving circular economy.
Seleem Adegunwa, Managing Director of Rite Foods Limited, revealed that the company employees also played a hands-on role in the campaign by actively sorting and returning plastics, recovering 288kg of post-consumer PET bottles and saving the environment 293.76kg CO₂ equivalent emissions in July alone.
“This result reinforces our belief that collective and consistent actions yield lasting impact. Riteonthebeach is a lifestyle change that supports Lagos State’s vision for a sustainable, clean, and healthy environment,” Adegunwa stated.
Echoing this, Mr. Ekuma Eze, Head, Corporate Affairs & Sustainability, emphasized that Rite Foods takes responsibility for its product life cycle—from use to proper recycling.
“Our Plastic Free July campaign showed that sustainable solutions to plastic waste are possible when communities, companies, and governments work together. Every bottle recovered is one less hazard to our waterways, biodiversity, and climate. Plastic is not the problem, improper disposal is and we are leading the charge for a sustainable solution through our Riteonthebeach initiative” Eze noted.
Highlighting the environmental stakes, Eze reiterated that: “By keeping plastics out of our waters, we protect ecosystems and open doors for recycling innovations that transform waste into valuable products.”
The partnership with Popbeach Club, according to the convener Akin Disu, has already resulted in the collection of thousands of tons of plastics from Lagos’ shorelines. Beyond clean-ups, the collaboration is creating jobs and educational opportunities, allowing shoreline communities to exchange collected waste plastics for recycling, while the proceeds from sale of plastic waste is deployed to back-to-school program for children in underserved communities.
Rite Foods, recently crowned ‘Food Company of the Year 2024’ at the prestigious Independent Media Awards, continues to refresh Nigeria with its diverse product portfolio—including 13 Bigi Carbonated Soft Drink variants, Bigi Premium Drinking Water, Sosa Fruit Drink (five flavours), the nation’s leading Fearless Energy Drink, and the much-loved Rite Spicy Beef and Bigi Beef Sausage Rolls—all produced in a world-class facility using state-of-the-art technology.
