Kenya Announces Recyclable Plastics Roadmap for 2030

Posted on : Wednesday , 14th September 2022

By 2030, all plastic packaging in the nation is to be recyclable or reused, according to a roadmap released by the Kenya Plastics Pact.
 

The Roadmap has been signed and endorsed by more than 30 company members and supporters of the Kenya Plastics Pact, including people from every level of the supply chain for plastic packaging.

They consist of producers of plastic packaging, well-known Fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) brands, devoted small and medium-sized enterprises, informal waste pickers' associations, recyclers, powerful industry associations, environmental NGOs, advocacy organisations, civil society, and the national government, which is represented by the Ministry of Environment and Forestry.  

"The Kenya Plastics Pact Roadmap shows a strong voice for real change by 2030, and it will direct and motivate the industry to combat plastic pollution by adopting coordinated action. According to Ms. Karin Boomsma, the Pact's Secretariat Lead, the Roadmap activities are intricate and focused on Kenya's context and the country's current state with regard to waste management, plastic pollution, the economy, the regulatory landscape, and the existing infrastructure.

Kenya produces roughly 22,000 tonnes of garbage every day, of which 20% is plastic. Additionally, 0.03 kilogramme of plastic is thought to be consumed everyday per person in Kenya.

According to the information that is currently available, Kenya produces 0.5 to 1.3 million tonnes of garbage from plastic annually. Only 8% of material is recycled; the remaining is disposed of in landfills or burned, or in the worst case, enters the environment. This is why pollution and plastic trash have drawn the attention of Kenyan businesses, governments, and residents in particular.

According to Ms. Carole Kariuki, CEO of the Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA), addressing the requirements of future generations will need a drastic change in how we utilise natural resources.

The Roadmap specifies four key aims for 2030, including the elimination of point-of-use plastic packaging that is unneeded or harmful through redesign, innovation, and reuse delivery models as well as the guarantee that all plastic packaging is recyclable or reusable.

According to Dr. Ayub Macharia, Director of Environmental, "This is a shared action plan that shows a cross-sectoral plan of outcomes and activities which, when achieved, will stimulate industry-led innovation, dialogue, and collaboration to create new business models with a focus on product redesign, create job opportunities in the plastics collection and recycling sector, and position businesses competitively with improved economic, environmental, and societal outcomes overall."

"WRAP is happy to have supported the Kenya Plastics Pact in the formulation of the Roadmap to 2030," says Marcus Gover, CEO of WRAP. "This will mobilise not only the Pact's signatories but also the larger Kenyan plastics industry to solve the plastic pollution challenge. We expect that Kenya will experience the same transformation of the plastics value chain as the UK Plastics Pact Roadmap, which was established over four years ago.

Sustainable Inclusive Business Kenya (SIB-K), the Pact's Secretariat, and the Knowledge Center under the Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA), are in charge of developing and implementing the Kenya Plastics Pact, with assistance from WRAP, a UK-based international environmental NGO, and initial funding provided by the MAVA Foundation and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). The Pact, which is the second in Africa after the South African Plastics Pact, is a member of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation's Plastics Pact Network.