from MARIA MACHARIA in Nairobi, Kenya
Kenya Bureau
NAIROBI, (CAJ News) – KENYA is intensifying efforts to combat plastic pollution, an issue that has emerged as a global environmental crisis.
Critical stakeholders from the government, the private sector including manufacturers and retailers, extended producer responsibility organisations, civil society and the informal waste sector have come together under the Kenya Plastics Pact (KPP).
The pact recognisses the urgency of addressing this challenge and is dedicated to driving systemic change across the plastics value chain.
Among targets Kenya Plastics Pact has set for 2030 include: ensuring 100 percent of plastic packaging is reusable or recyclable, ensuring 40 percent of plastic packaging is effectively recycled and increasing the average recycled content to 15 percent across all plastic packaging.
Ebenezer Amadi, Programme Manager at Sustainable Inclusive Business, the KPP Secretariat, said they were helping stakeholders in the plastics value chain to work together to redesign the plastics system, eliminate unnecessary and problematic plastic items, increase the recycling rate and reuse of plastics and support a circular economy.
“We seek to inspire change in how plastic is produced, used, and disposed of in Kenya and to serve as a model for other countries in the region and beyond,” Amadi said.
The private sector has pledged its support.
“As the private sector, the time to act is now, as we build momentum towards the implementation mechanism for EPR in the global south,” said Faith Ngige – Coordinator, Climate Business Information Network – Kenya (CBIN-K) under the Kenya Private Sector Alliance.
EPR is an acronym for the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) provisions under the Sustainable Waste Management Act (2022), where one of the key objectives is alignment with the circular economy’s goals, including providing a framework for the responsible management of plastic waste.
– CAJ News