On Saturday, hundreds of environmental activists took to the streets of Kenya’s capital city, Nairobi, urging global leaders to more rigorously limit plastic production. Their march came ahead of a momentous assembly scheduled in the same city where discussions regarding a groundbreaking global treaty on plastics will take place.
Meeting representatives from over 170 countries are set to begin deliberations in Nairobi on the practical actions to be incorporated in a global treaty designed to mitigate the menace of plastic pollution. Such an international accord seeking to resolve this issue is considered a world-first initiative by the United Nations.
Tiara Samson, an associate at Break Free from Plastic, the organization responsible for initiating the march, emphasised the need to concentrate efforts on aggressive targets for reducing plastic production. She expressed reservations about the focus on end of pipeline solutions, arguing that investment in such initiatives might detract attention from the core issue of plastics reduction.
The protesters, carrying slogans such as “Plastic crisis = climate crisis” and “End multigenerational toxic exposure”, insisted that the discussions should center on curtailing plastic production.
John Chweya, president of the Kenya National Waste Pickers Welfare Association, asserted the value of local knowledge and historical context in combatting plastic pollution. “We are the people who have the historical knowledge and also the depth of controlling plastic pollution. We are at the heart of recycling and I believe that our voices should set base to this treaty,” he said.
The issue is grave, as global plastic production has escalated, doubling since the beginning of the century. However, less than 10 per cent of this waste is currently recycled. Even gloomier, is its universal presence, impacting locations from towering mountain peaks, deepest ocean trenches, even infiltrating human bodies.
Adding to the list of environmental crimes, plastic was also accountable for 3.4 per cent of global emissions in 2019, as stated by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. The ecological damage caused by plastic pollution doesn’t only harm our environment but also poses a considerable threat to human health.
“Plastic pollution is affecting everyone all along the value chain from the moment we extract oil gas and coal to make plastic, to the moment we export waste to third countries, to having it ending up being burnt or being in dump sites,” noted Delphine Levi Alvares, Global Petrochemical Lead at Break Free from Plastic.
This colossal convention in Nairobi is the paramount opportunity to debate a draft treaty, released in September, outlining diverse strategies to address this intractable plastic predicament.
There have already been two rounds of negotiators’ meetings, and it is anticipated that these Kenyan deliberations will conclude by next year. The aim is to usher in this ground-breaking treaty by mid-2025, presenting a ray of hope in the otherwise grim global panorama of plastic pollution.
Image Credit: Markus Spiske on Unsplash
