He who creates plastic ought to dispose of the pollutant

 The last time I used a paper straw was almost three decades ago, and it was part of a child’s play.

Now, as the hospitality industry becomes more environmentally-conscious, paper straws and glass bottles have found space in high-end hotels in Kenya.

For years, plastic straws and bottles have littered streets and found their way into lakes and the ocean where they endanger marine species.

The ubiquitous plastic straws are in every retail outlet selling soft drinks at no cost. Even those on sale are so cheap buyers do not feel the pinch of pricing.

500 MILLION STRAWS

In the US, for example, 500 million straws are used daily, according to a 2019 estimate while a study indicated that as much as 8.3 billion plastic straws pollute the world’s beaches, according to a National Geographic publication last year.

“Plastic straws are used in bulk. Everybody, even a small kiosk, has got hundreds of them,” says Diana Shitakha, Lantana Galu Beach manager, one of the hotels that have gone plastic-free.

“At Lantana Galu, we use paper straws that are biodegradable,” she says.

The hotel on the Coast is one of the 17 in Kenya that have embraced a sustainable business model rooted in a circular economy, aimed at ensuring that pollutants, especially plastic, waste do not find their way into the environment.

Others are Serena Beach Resort and Spa Diani Reef Beach Resort and Spa, Sarova Whitesands Beach Resort and Spa, Tamarind Mombasa, The Sands in Chale Island and Swahili Beach Resort.

The hotel is minimising, if not eliminating, the usage of plastics at its premises. It also recycles solid and liquid waste.

PLASTIC CONTAINERS

“Shampoo, conditioners and shower gels are normally supplied in small plastic containers, which most of the guests carry with them and for sure end up in the garbage. Once the person has emptied it, one cannot refill it – they just end up in the dump site,” says Ms Shitakha.

“We don’t use them. Instead, we have big [reusable] canisters, which we refill. This reduces the amount of plastic ending up in the environment.”

To manage liquid waste, Lantana Galu has a biological water treatment plant, which is designed to use micro-organisms in recycling.

“Water at the hotel is solar-heated. After it is used in the rooms, we collect and recycle it using a bio-system, which breaks down all the waste and separates the sludge from the water then we take the water to the taps in the garden. That’s how we keep our gardens green all year round,” she says.

Hotel engineer Raymond Biegon says “the system is natural where we aerate several chambers to keep bacteria alive and feed on the broil. The final product is clean water”.

The hotels, under the ‘Plastic Free East Africa Coast’ initiative organised by Kenya Tourism Federation, UN Environment and Eco-Tourism Kenya, seek sustainable alternatives to plastics.

PLASTIC POLLUTION

This year, Tourism and Wildlife Cabinet Secretary Najib Balala banned single-use plastic in protected natural areas as Kenya marked the World Environment Day, giving the war on plastic pollution a major boost.

“The preservation of our environment is tied to our well-being and the well-being of future generations. This ban is yet another first in addressing the plastic pollution catastrophe facing Kenya and the world, and we hope that it catalyses similar policies and actions from the East African Community,” he said.

Susan Maingi, who runs Kichakani Wild Consulting in Diani, says Kenya should focus on partnerships to ensure that any plastic generated, if not turned into resources, is dealt with in a way that does not harm the environment.

“We must be conscious about what we contribute to the environment and provide ways to take the waste back to the source for recycling into products that can be re-used,” she said.

However, environmental activists say more needs to be done to curb the unfettered use of plastics to feed the insatiable demand by local businesses and multinationals. The ban on plastic paper carriers, they say, is just a tip of the iceberg.

“The government must put in place a strong and right amount of pressure. The best example we have that worked is the ban on plastic bags. Even though everyone complained that it was too soon, it was not well thought through, we probably reduced the amount of plastic in the economy by about 80 percent. It’s visible to every Kenyan that it has changed our environment and landscape. The fact is that we have learnt to live without them and it happened overnight,” says Dipesh Pabari, co-founder and project leader at FlipFlopi, which Ben Morison came up with after witnessing the shocking quantities of plastic on Kenya’s beaches, according to the UN Environment.

The FlipFlopi saw the launch of the world’s first 100 percent recycled plastic and flip-flop boat into the Indian Ocean in 2018.

After the successful boat project, FlipFlopi project plans to do an expedition around Lake Victoria.

CREATE AWARENESS

“What we at FlipFlopi have been trying to do is to create awareness but in a positive, inspiring way to showcase and demonstrate human innovation as well as to show people that it is possible to make a change. For us, it has been very successful in the sense of we have been able to build the world’s first boat built at a very low tech level. We sailed it to Zanzibar and created global awareness from this,” he said.

However, says Mr Pabari, producers of pollutants should also play an active role in ensuring that they protect the environment.

“The argument now is that those who are responsible for creating the material should also be responsible for disposing of them properly,” he says.

“The onus has always been on the consumer to deal with the problem but shouldn’t the onus be on the producer?”

“The reason for that is we believe we have to take the message upstream. The ocean has been looked at in an isolated way. It’s not only up to the coastal people but the problem begins upstream. The message has to continue upstream,” he said.