World Environment Day: How sub-Saharan Africa is fighting to reduce plastic waste

Today, June 5th, is World Environment Day, a day designated by the United Nations 50 years ago to raise global awareness and action for environmental protection.

This year's event, marking environment day’s 50th anniversary, is being hosted by Cote d'Ivoire in partnership with the Netherlands, with the theme focusing on solutionsto plastic pollution under the campaign #BeatPlasticPollution, which the UN launched in 2018.

With an African country hosting the event, it is prudent to ask just how Sub-Saharan Africa, a region that generates about 17 million tonnes of plastic waste annually and has the highest percentage of countries with plastic bag bans (approximately 46%), has fared thus far in the global campaign.

“The Beat Plastic campaign in sub-Saharan Africa, where 34 of the 54 nations have either enacted legislation prohibiting plastics and implemented it or had a law with the purpose of implementation, including placing significant fees on plastic products, is still very much a work in progress,” Dorothy Abalo, an environmental scientist told New Vision online.

“It is still a work in progress because plastic waste in Africa is still largely mismanaged, as statistically referenced in the 2022 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development “Global Plastics Outlook” report.”

DR. Richard Munang-Pic Credit-African Development Bank

“According to the report, 64% of plastic waste in Africa was mismanaged, meaning it was either dumped or lost in the environment, and 30% ended up in landfills, the highest rate globally, compared to a global average of roughly 22%.”

Dr. Richard Munang, Deputy Regional Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Africa Office, also told New Vision online the Beat Plastic campaign in sub-Saharan Africa was still a work in progress on account of existing plastic regulatory arrangements pitting the environment against economies and because recycling was still negligible.

“For example, in one country, partial plastic bans resulted in a 60 – 90% job loss in the plastics industry. But if countries and companies made deep policy and market shifts using existing technologies to drive circularity (reuse, reduce plastic pollution by 30% while enhancing recycling) as a recent UN Environment Programme study  titled  "Turning off the Tap: How the World Can End Plastic Pollution and Create a Circular Ecosystem” indicates, plastic pollution could be reduced by 80% by 2040.”

“Africa risks being a dustbin of plastic bags and waste, with less than 10% of plastics being recycled. This waste ends up in the open environment, where it blocks drainage systems leading to flooding in diverse African cities in addition to compounding the health risks associated with plastic waste,” Munang said.

He noted that whilst progressive legislative efforts to ban the use of plastics or impose heavy taxes on plastic products have been ongoing in sub-Saharan Africa since 2000, their success remains in question.

In a book published earlier this year titled “Digital Innovations for a circular plastic economy in Africa” Scholars Muyiwa Oyinlola, Oluwaseun Kolade, and others from the Universities of Sheffield Hallam, De Montfort, Namibia, Coventry, and the Circular Economy Innovation Partnership, among others, put forth that many African countries' plastic pollution challenges were due to subpar infrastructure and sub-optimal waste management systems.

"Many African countries have ratified multilateral environmental agreements on wastes and have policies that dictate how wastes such as single-use plastics should be managed, but lack of collection and recycling infrastructure, corruption, weak legislation, and failure to enforce legislation, which often leads to impunity, are obstacles that frustrate the implementation of proper waste management systems,” said Abalo.

Yo-Waste workers in Uganda load plastic waste onto one of their trucks. Credit-Martin Tumusiime Twitter handle

According to the Chatham House ‘circular economy. earth’s policy tracker, currently 50 out of 54 African countries have some form of waste management policy, strategies, or legislation in place. 

Regional experts have also noted that, in addition to negatively impacting the region's natural ecosystems, health, climate, livelihoods, land, and animal life, mismanaged plastic wastes, which are increasing due to the region's population growth and increased urbanisation, may also impede progress towards the African Union's Agenda 2063 Goal number 7, which aims for environmentally sustainable and climate-resilient economies.

In a recent research article, University of Kentucky Scholars Dimitrios Karadimas, Emilye Garner, and Jeffrey Seay, who advocate for the conversion of plastic waste into fuel oil, argue that unless the market value of plastic waste in the global south increases, it will simply be discarded, eventually making its way to the environment.

Changing status quo

However, the status quo is not all grim, as some major economies on the continent, such as Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Cote d'Ivoire, Cameroon, and others, are bringing change to bear with circular economy waste management solutions and have created over 30000 jobs, both direct and indirect and have added over $450 to their economies.

Cote d'Ivoire, the 2023 World Environment Day host country, has demonstrated leadership in the fight against plastic pollution since 2014. 

like Rwanda, is a shining example of environmental protection, having prohibited the use of plastic bags and promoted the transition to reusable packaging.

Individual enterprises in sub-Saharan African cities like Nairobi, Abidjan, etc are also making a difference by demonstrating how to use plastic waste more sustainably, which is also one of the goals of this year's World Environment Day.

In Kenya’s capital, Nairobi for example, 31-year-old Nzambi Matee, a materials science graduate and foundress of Gjenge Makers, recycles plastic waste into paving tiles that are up to 30% cheaper than conventional concrete blocks, five to seven times stronger than concrete, and have the potential to save over 11 tonnes of carbon when used in place of conventional concrete blocks.

Magee’s enterprise reportedly produced 1,500 pavers every day at the time her story was published a few years ago.

In Uganda, Yo Waste, a technological start-up, has developed a mobile, cloud-based service that connects waste creators to the nearest garbage haulers in their community, allowing waste haulers and recyclers quicker, more efficient access to plastic waste.

Timothy Omara

In Cameroon, young ICT-savvy people are likewise breaking new ground by applying innovative concepts that enhance plastic waste recycling. 

 The enterprise-BleagLee-uses ICT, specifically drone mapping, to map out and find plastic trash sites and share information with local authorities to guarantee the effective deployment of garbage collection resources to target areas with the largest waste load.

In Nigeria, the software company Wecyclers provides a rewards-for-recycling network that connects informal waste collectors with bulk recyclers who are compensated based on the volume of rubbish they collect.

In Zambia, Recyclebot connects garbage sellers and waste buyers through a crowdsourcing platform that aggregates waste by category and region. Plastic waste producers effectively dispose of their garbage for free, while waste consumers avoid the costs of separation, transfer, and storage.

 What is still needed

“The plastic pollutants that are on African shores do not originate from Africa. A significant proportion of the plastic that ends up on African shores is produced in developed, industrialized countries. So, regulating the production and use of plastics at the global scale is what is urgently needed by Africa and the entire globe to combat this transboundary problem,” said Munang.

“It is why the continents' participation in the international negotiations towards a legally binding treaty on plastic pollution due to come into force by 2024, to ensure such transboundary challenges are addressed among other continental priorities such as increasing investment in plasticity in plastics, is of utmost importance.”

Dr. Ahmed Lateef Tayo, the registrar general of the African Institute of Waste Management and environmental studies in Kaduna, Nigeria said by combining awareness and education, infrastructure development, plastic substitutes, recycling, circular economy concepts, teamwork, policy interventions, and innovation, Sub-Saharan Africa can successfully combat plastic pollution. 

“Although a circular plastics economy is an essential part of this strategy, it must be combined with other tactics to effectively address the problem of plastic pollution in the region.”

Timothy Omara, a Ugandan researcher and doctoral student at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna, Austria said the region still needs significant investments in waste management infrastructure. 

“Effective waste management and sorting of wastes will make it easier to eliminate plastic wastes from the environment,” he said.

In a recent write-up, Patience Nsereko, a principal environment inspector at the National Environment Authority said Africa needs to build on progress made during the first and recently concluded plastics treaty negotiations that aimed at developing international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution and the policy support from the 2019 African Ministerial Conference on Environment (AMCEN), which committed to support global action to address plastic pollution and to accelerate actions towards a circular economy for the transformation of Africa.

She put forth that the plastic treaty negotiations provide an opportunity for Africa to advance a common position and influence the framing of the treaty to address some of the challenges it faces. 

“Sub-Saharan Africa needs to push for an enabling circular economy (reuse, reduce, and recycle) policy and regulatory framework to ensure its success. The urgency to prioritize circularity in plastics in Africa is high,” said Munang.

“Recycling as a venture can reduce plastic pollution by a further 20%, while reorientation and diversifying by replacing plastic products with alternative materials can result in an additional 17% reduction. The possible economic opportunities are also immense, with up to $1.27 trillion in direct savings and a net increase of 700,000 jobs by 2040,” Munang added.

Alexander Mangwiro, the UN Environment Programme's regional coordinator in charge of the chemicals, Waste management, and Air Quality Subprogramme told New Vision online that improving waste management systems and recycling plastics, both of which are crucial activities in the circular economy, sub-Saharan Africa will be able to keep plastic trash from landfills and therefore reduce plastic leakage into nature.

Environmental experts also point out that more progress will be made in the region's Beat plastic pollution campaign once collective efforts, such as the 2022 endorsement to forge a legally binding agreement to end plastic pollution agreed upon at the  UN Environment Assembly in Nairobi, are strengthened.