Bid to stop pollution amid rising production of plastics

Plastics

Over the years, increased manufacture and use of disposable plastics has led to clogged sewage systems, a dirty environment and choking seas and oceans. 

Photo credit: Fotosearch

Like other nations, Kenya has lost biodiversity, and wildlife and plants are threatened, compromising the quality of life.

According to the UN Environment, nearly one million species face extinction from climate change, land degradation, habitat loss, pollution and overexploitation.

While the UN agency advocates “keeping wild spaces wild by stopping deforestation and restoring degraded land to protect biodiversity, boost food production and store carbon,” every year, tonnes of plastics get into the environment, further threatening plants and animals.

Over the years, increased manufacture and use of disposable plastics has led to clogged sewage systems, a dirty environment and choking seas and oceans. Research has shown that human beings are not only ‘choking’ the environment with plastics, but themselves.

“Plastics eventually get into the food chain as animals and fish eat them, confusing them for food,” states UN Environment in a report.
In Kenya, protected areas including national parks, forests or even beaches are some of the most affected by plastic pollution. This is because people on picnics, vacations, mountaineering and tourism litter with abandon.

In bid to have a cleaner, healthier and more serene environment, the government banned single use plastics in all protected areas.

The ban which took effect on Friday, two years after single use carrier bags were banned in the country, is expected to change the face of national parks and game reserves, Ramsar convention sites, forests, beaches and other protected places.

It means that you will not use disposable plastic plates, cups, straws, spoons, forks and water bottles (PET) in these protected areas. Other items, which are not allowed are cigarettes because of cigarette butts, balloons and balloon sticks, food containers, crisps packets, sweet wrappers, bread bags and confectionery wrappers.

A global survey showed that cigarette butts — whose filters contain tiny plastic fibres — were the most common type of plastic waste found in the environment.

The Ministry of Environment banned use of disposable PET bottles in Karura Forest in September 2017 while the current directive covers all conservation and protected areas in the country.

“With great irony, tourism, which often depends upon the Earth’s natural beauty, is making enormous contributions to its decay in a very visible way,” states a report by the UN Environment.

According to a trends report by Sustainable Inclusive Business (SIB-Kenya), globally, plastic production had surged to 359 million tonnes by 2018. 
Projections show that this amount is expected to double in the next 20 years, with most of it being single use packaging material, states SIB-Kenya.

SIB-Kenya Director Karin Boomsma said: “This (ban) comes at a time when we see an increase in single-use plastic products, and the ban will go a long way in encouraging the adoption of the refuse, rethink, remanufacture, recycle, and recover model of production”.

But Kenya does not have raw materials for manufacturing plastics and all are imported. A study done by Eunomia gives an inflated figure of the average growth rate of plastics in Kenya from 2009 to 2016, showing a total import figure of approximately 567,000 metric tonnes of import per year.

Every year, Kenya consumes a total of 517 tonnes of plastic, without including imported and exported packaged products, states the report.
“If well implemented, the ban on single-use plastics will profit public health, tourism and agriculture, among others. This is by ensuring a cleaner environment with less plastic pollution, a factor beneficial not only to human health, but also to biodiversity and will make Kenya’s tourism destinations more appealing for both domestic and foreign travellers,” said Boomsma.