Plastic pollution is at the top of the agenda during the UN Environemnt Assembly.
Image: CHETI PRAXIDES
Kenya is set to host the fifth Session of the United Nations Environment Assembly between February 28 and March 3.
Hosted by the UN Environment Programme, the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) brings together representatives of the 193 Member States of the UN, businesses, civil society and other stakeholders to agree on policies to address the world’s most pressing environmental challenges.
The overall theme for UNEA-5 is “Strengthening Actions for Nature to Achieve the Sustainable Development Goals”.
This highlights the pivotal role nature plays in our lives and in social, economic and environmentally sustainable development.
Plastic pollution is at the top of the agenda during the Assembly.
Gilbert Koech speaks to PETCO Country Manager Joyce Gachugi on strides made in recycling.
How much plastic is recycled in Kenya annually?
About 10,000 to 13,000Mt of PET are recycled annually with PETCO subsidizing the cost of more than 8000 Mt of PET in 2020 and an estimated 9,500Mt by the end of 2021. In 2017 a study done by Eunomia showed that about 5,778 Mt of PET packaging was recycled.
How many people does PETCO estimate are employed by the plastics value chain in Kenya, Recyclers and other sources?
The value chain for PET and other plastics has about 20 different medium to large scale recyclers in the country. These process an average of 100 Mt (Medium) to 3000Mt (large) per month.
The small scale factories are about 30 with a range of 30 to 100Mt per month.The Small scale factories have an average of 150 workers while the Medium to large scale has about 30 to 50 getting an average of 40 workers bringing the total to 800 workers.
There are about 30 up cyclers in each county most of whom are community-based organizations that make other households/ decorative/ functional items out of used plastic containers. Each has an average of 15 people who contribute to their work bringing to about 15,000 workers in the country.
The collectors on the other hand could rise up to numbers as high as 30,000 if you also count all the garbage collection companies.
In Mombasa County, we trained about 800 waste managers in one year alone.
If you average that and multiply by the 47 counties, it will total to about 32,000 workers.
This estimate totals to about approximately 50,000 workers with the potential to double or triple in number with the establishment of Extended Producer Responsibility.
What economic opportunities are available in plastic collection and recycling?
The opportunities available are there on the basic level of increasing the capacity of counties to action on their waste management practices. Kenya’s county governments work closely with the private sector to action the waste management responsibility. Nakuru County for example has a great example of the harmony between the county and private sector.
What are the gaps?
In the collection, there is a need to have improved technology for compressing collected material and reducing its bulkiness during transportation.
There is also a need to have trucks that have sorting compartments and have scheduled days for collecting different materials to improve efficiency during transportation and reduce contamination of other waste fractions.
What determines the rate paid to collectors per kg of plastic waste?
The cost of recycling determines the rate paid to collectors per kg.This includes transportation of material; labour costs at the factory, utility bills as water and electricity are used to clean and process the recovered material. In the Eunomia Study, 42,950Mt of plastic is taken for recycling but on 36, 193Mt is recycled. The difference is therefore discarded as waste as it does not meet the recycling criteria. This evidently adds to the labour costs.
The international market also determines the rate as most of the PET collected is exported (which would include how the shilling compares to the dollar). A rise in the crude oil market also determines as a rise in crude oil prices increases demand for recycled plastic as a raw material against using virgin plastic.
What is the scope of PETCOs operations (geographically) besides Nairobi?
PETCO has so far had operations in Mombasa, Nakuru, Garissa, Kiambu; and engagements in Kisumu and Nyeri Counties.
Briefly explain the Extended Producer Responsibility scheme and how PETCO comes in.
The concept of an extended producer responsibility (EPR) was developed in Germany in the late 1980s. It is based on the idea that the producer responsibility, which e.g. determines that the producer is responsible for their products regarding aspects of safety, health and environmental impacts, is extended until the end-of-life stage. ‘Producer’ in this context describes companies that put plastic goods (product and/ or packaging) on the market for consumption, which is usually referred to as ‘users’ in the Kenyan context.
This means that in the EPR scheme, the producer (or user) is responsible for all waste management related to tasks like collecting, sorting and recycling. Thus, the EPR involves producers in the management and financing of packaging waste and gives them the obligation to assume responsibility for their waste.
Although EPR systems vary across countries with regard to certain aspects of their setup, EPR schemes should be designed to manage the obligation of producers while balancing the mandates of environmental policy in the light of the ‘polluter pays principle'.Accordingly, the basics of EPR are almost the same in every country.
Under EPR, every obliged company pays a fee when introducing a packaged good on the market.The fee serves for the collection and further processing of the packaging waste. The collection, sorting, recycling, or energy recovery of packaging waste remains the responsibility of the obliged companies.
What is Kenya Plastics Pact (KPP) that was launched in October 2021?
They are based on the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s platform that brings together like-minded organizations to commit to certain targets to reduce plastic pollution. KPP is largely administrative in operations, collecting data from other organizations such as PETCO, KEPRO, KAM, KEPSA etc. and then compiling reports for dissemination. KPP is not programmatic, in the sense its mandate is not to collect and recycle plastics. PETCO has signed up with them, as such; we represent all our members in the pact.
What is the economic potential of the plastic recycling industry in Kenya (in terms of employment and revenue)?
One of the economic potentials of plastic recycling is that it creates jobs.
It also reduces environmental pollution if you think of all the clogged trenches that cause flooding and the destruction of property and the costs that go into this. It also protects aquatic and marine populations as the conservation of these populations and water bodies, improves the livelihoods of the people who benefit from their daily sustenance on the health and productivity of these ecosystems.
Further, there are tourism benefits from protected areas. Other benefits include technological advancements with the mechanization of the recycling process. Plastic recycling also promotes local and international investments as well as increases in foreign investors for the development of Material Recovery Facilities and Recycling Facilities. The adaptation of circular economy concepts can create “green jobs’ while increasing Kenya’s recycling rate from current low rates of about 10 per cent as projected from the Eunomia study done in 2018.
What are some of the products made from recycled plastic?
Chairs, water tanks by Roto, Decorative items: some through Flip flopi and other coastal CBOs especially. Construction material: paving and building blocks, roofing tiles.
Briefly touch on the local and international plastic recycling market and how Kenya features.
The global plastics recycling market was valued at US$ 31 billion in 2015 and is expected to reach US$ 57 billion worldwide by 2024. This is estimated to be approximately 8 % of the total plastic market volume, which is expected to be worth US$ 654 billion by 2020 and US$ 721 billion by 2025. The plastic-to-fuel market is expected to grow significantly in the next years as a response to rising energy demands.
Processing waste plastic would offer a suitable solution to respond to the need for fuel while processing the increasing quantities of plastic waste; releasing pressure from the depletion of natural resources.
In 2018, the global PET recycling market stood at US$ 7 billion and its compound annual growth rate is estimated to be 7.4 % until 2025, resulting in a value of US$ 11 billion. The increasing consumer awareness regarding environmental sustainability is a key driver together with the increase of landfill bans worldwide. Demand for recycled PET is created by several industries such as the textiles industry, consumer goods, automobiles and food and beverage packaging.
Recycling in Kenya has been a part of Kenya’s local economy for many years with recyclers and upcycles being in operation for many years. PETCO however is the country’s first voluntary EPR scheme and was modelled after PETCO SA.
What needs to be done for Kenya to develop a truly circular economy for plastics?
In Kenya, if the current drafted bills and regulations are enacted then there will be a lot of promise for us to actually start building capacity to create provisions for a circular economy. The regulations will give the PROs standing to ask for tax incentives for recyclers and other investors willing to make products out of recycled material
What challenges do you face while transporting recovered material across different counties?
At this point, we are waiting for the sustainable waste management bill and EPR regulations 2020 to be enacted. With this, there will be more premises for a reduction in CESS fees across counties. The movement of material is still expensive as the fees have not been seen. However, we have received information of some organisations being able to apply for a waiver to transport post-consumer plastic packaging across the different counties by recovered material not being classified as waste but as a raw material; in a bid to promote circular economy
Recycling Capacity now and in the future.
Currently, our recyclers have the capacity to take up about 4000Mt of PET per month. Out of this about 1200Mt are collected and taken for recycling. The potential to increase Kenya’s recycling capacity for PET is greatly present. However, our biggest challenge is recovery. Without proper waste segregation at the consumer level, a lot of material is lost into the environment and adds to our ecological footprint.
In addition, the need for a steady supply of recovered post-consumer packaging material will allow for stability in opening the door for investors interested in setting up factories to make products on a large scale out of recycled material locally.