Ocean Sole Africa organized a clean-up campaign in Kilifi, Kenya on February 12, 2022. Volunteers collected plastic waste. Photo by AFP
What can we do to stop Africa becoming the largest dumping ground of plastic in the world?
This is one of the major questions that United Nations members will face next week at a stock taking on Earth’s environmental woes.
Large landfills litter African cities, ranging from Antanarivo through Dakar via Nairobi or Conakry. The plastic waste is estimated to be thousands of tons.
Dumping is dangerous and smelly. They release toxic particles and smoke. They are also a place for impoverished children, men, and women to pick through the filth to survive.
Plastic waste, whether blown by the wind or swept downstream by rivers, pollutes the ocean, forests, and fields. It also threatens wildlife and humans, as microscopic particles can enter the food chain.
Hama Abdoulaye, a shepherd from Niamey, capital city of the Sahel State of Niger, said, “The plastic bags really are killers.”
“The animals eat plastic when they graze the grass and die slowly.”
The UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the UN Environment Assembly’s three-day opening in Nairobi on Monday, said that plastic pollution is increasing in Africa, due to poor rubbish collection and a lack of recycling facilities.
According to a recent report, the problem is “a significant threat to the environment and the economies on the continent”.
Each year, around 300 million tons of plastic waste are produced. This is the equivalent of the world’s human population.
Globally, however, less than 10% is recycled. This is despite the fact that reliable statistics for Africa are scarce.
Ousmane Dabadji, the head of an NGO called Niger Network for Water and Sanitation, stated that “if nothing is done in a couple of years, Africa would become a dustbin filled with plastic bags and waste.”
Knock-on effect
Since 2018, several Asian countries have banned the import of plastic waste such as the Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia.
This has sparked fears about a knock-on impact – wealthy countries may turn to Africa for their plastic garbage.
Africa is a well-known destination for hazardous products and materials, such as batteries and used electrical and electronic parts, especially in Nigeria and Ghana.
“There is a high risk of seeing all of the waste from industrialized nations dumped here in Africa,” stated Yves Ikobo of Planete Verte RDC, a grassroots organization in DR Congo.
African countries will seek to come to a common position in Nairobi regarding the ban on plastic waste import into Africa. The aim is to negotiate an international agreement against plastic polluting.
Since the 2000s, most sub-Saharan African states have slowly adopted legislation banning the import, marketing, storage, and use of plastic bags and packaging.
However, the laws are often ignored or not applied properly.
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), in a letter to AFP, stated that it was “finalizing a draft regulation” for harmonizing national rules among its 15 members.
However, it acknowledged that the member states “haven’t yet agreed… on an import deadline for plastics.”
John Gakwavu of a Rwandan NGO for environmental conservation said that “there is a lack commitment from many countries in Africa.”
Danbadji, from Niger Network, agreed.
Employment
The lack of commitment is not a sign of poor governance.
It is also related to the economic impact of the plastics industry, which is a large employer in many countries.
Nhlanhla Sibisi, Greenpeace Africa’s Johannesburg-based representative, stated that “I don’t think African countries will adopt exactly the same position” at Nairobi.
South Africa is an example.
In the continent’s largest economy, 65,000 people work in the synthetics material industry. This is a big plus considering that 65 percent of young people in the country are unemployed. The sector also contributes a lot to tax revenue.
Barbara Creecy, South African Environment Minister, recently warned that international agreements must consider “differentiated responsibility and respective capabilities.”
This is a common refrain at UN climate conferences. When developing countries claim they shouldn’t be asked to carry the same burden as rich countries, this formulation is often heard.
Ikobo said, “It will prove very difficult for our countries in uniting to ban the entry of waste,”
“It is also a means of bringing money in, of capital. We must keep applying pressure to ensure that we don’t sacrifice the continent’s future.
Sorted Imports
There are however other voices that say plastic waste import is acceptable provided certain conditions are met.
Richard Kainika (secretary general of the Association of Kenyan Waste Recyclers) said that he had no problem as long as the waste was properly sorted and classified.
Meanwhile, grassroots environmental work – which was sorely lacking in Africa for so many years – is picking-up.
Some residents are picking up plastic on the streets and beaches in some areas. There are also some projects in recycling that are being undertaken cautiously.
Libreville and Abidjan are shining stars. A factory for recycling plastic into bricks was opened in 2020 thanks to UNESCO and a Colombian firm. This factory will be used to build hundreds of schools in Cote d’Ivoire.
These initiatives won’t solve the larger problem of reckless and massive dumping of plastic.
They do sow awareness that in turn leads to pressure for governments to act.
These could be the first steps to save the continent’s drowning in plastic.
AFP