As negotiators gather in Kenya, report sheds light on true cost of plastic pollution

(13 Nov 2023) KENYA PLASTIC POLLUTION SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS RESTRICTION SUMMARY: LENGTH: 6:09 ASSOCIATED PRESS Nairobi, Kenya - 10 November 2023 1. Wide of dumpsite 2. Various of plastic waste 3. Various of river polluted by plastics 4. Setup shot of Alex Kubasu, program coordinator for circular economy initiative, World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Kenya 5. SOUNDBITE (English) Alex Kubasu, programme coordinator for circular economy initiative, WWF(World Wide Fund), Kenya: “A lot of the decisions around plastic production and design is actually determined in far-flung countries, the richer countries, and then the impact is felt much more on the ground in low and middle income countries.“ 6. Various of Kubasu talking on phone 7. SOUNDBITE (English) Alex Kubasu, program coordinator for circular economy initiative, World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Kenya: “Can you imagine a country like Kenya, which is in the category of low medium income countries, has to spend $150 to $200 to manage one kilo of plastic compared to a developed, wealthy country that will only need to spend $19 to manage that kilo of plastic. And most importantly, Kenya is not even on the table in terms of design and in terms of limiting the production of this plastic.“ 8. Various of plastic 9. SOUNDBITE (English) Alex Kubasu, program coordinator for circular economy initiative, World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Kenya: “So, the reason why we want a global legally binding treaty, just like in the Paris Agreement for Climate, then we would need targets that would essentially move countries, for example, to move from unnecessary, problematic and un-recyclable products to a standard that says all countries, all producers, must create products by these standards that are all recyclable, so that we do not have a huge percentage of materials ending up either in the dumpsite or being incinerated that essentially fuels more extraction of fossil fuels to feed into the exponential growth.“ 10. Various of waste plastic sorting facility 11. Various of plastic 12. Various setup shots of Amos Wemanya, senior advisor on renewable energy and just transitions, Power Shift Africa 13. SOUNDBITE (English) Amos Wemanya, senior advisor on renewable energy and just transitions, Power Shift Africa: “In 2019, for example, China refused to take plastic imports, so right now, countries in the Global North are trying to look for an alternative home for their plastics, which is very expensive if it is was to be dumped in Africa. It might cost a lot of resources in terms of capacity, but also the infrastructure requirement that is required to handle these plastics is very costly to African economies.“ 14. Various of plastic 15. Various of plastic shredding at plastic recycling company Mr. Green Africa 16. Various setup shots of Kerian Smith, chief executive at plastic recycling company Mr. Green Africa 17. SOUNDBITE (English) Kerian Smith, chief executive at plastic recycling company Mr. Green Africa: “There’s still a lack of getting more capacity, because we are in a growing country so with growth there comes more waste packaging that is being consumed and with consumption there also comes more waste. So, I think the capacity being way behind of what is actually being output in terms of waste and we need to definitely catch up with more recycling capacity to be able to tackle the problem.“ 18. Various of waste plastic sorting 19. SOUNDBITE (English) Kerian Smith, chief executive at plastic recycling company Mr. Green Africa: 20. Various of river polluted by plastics STORYLINE: LEADIN: STORYLINE: Find out more about AP Archive: Twitter: Facebook: ​​ Instagram: You can license this story through AP Archive: