Report: Plastic bottles that pollute Lake Nakuru come from foreign firms

More than a third of plastic bottle waste found in Nakuru comes from foreign multinational companies based in Kenya, a study has revealed.

The plastic waste analysis was conducted within Lake Nakuru National Park's catchment area. Most of the plastic end up polluting Lake Nakuru National Park.

The analysis comes at a time when pressure is mounting for the multinational companies in Kenya to honour their climate action commitments to increase climate ambition, build resilience and lower emissions and ensure a plastic waste free environment.

The plastic brand audit was done during World clean up day on September 18 by the Nakuru Waste Pickers Association, environmental lobby Ecorethink and the Centre for Environmental Justice and Development (CEJAD).

According to the data generated from 1,048 bottles scanned, 38 per cent came from manufacturers based in the US, India, the United Kingdom, Belgium and Japan while over half were from manufacturers in Kenya and Tanzania.

Single-use plastic bottles

The team collected discarded single-use plastic bottles using the Wastebase app where waste collectors scanned the barcode of each bottle, instantly uploading data to wastebase.org.

Wastebase is a digital platform developed by UK-based social enterprise, Unwaste.io, which allows environmental activists to organise, map and visualise data about the plastic waste problem in their countries.

The platform instantly collects data from local plastic cleanups and brand audits by environmental Non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

Alcoholic beverages

According to the sample collected beverage mainly carbonated soft drinks, followed by drinking water, and with a much smaller proportion of alcoholic beverages contributed more waste than all other sectors combined as it contributed 92 per cent while the rest of the waste came from household and personal care and, cosmetics.

 Mr Cameron Smith, Unwaste.io's managing director, said, "Data has a huge role to play in encouraging adoption of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR). Lake Nakuru is internationally recognised and protected, yet the region is clogged with many thousands of single-use plastic bottles that make their way into the water.

He added, "Working with trusted partners who know their region gives us credible, valuable data to encourage everyone, including the beverage producers, to take responsibility for their post-consumer plastic bottles."

300 bottles

The data showed that regional soft drink brand Azam accounted for almost 300 bottles, while brands owned by the Coca-Cola Company (such as Sprite, Fanta) made up 44 per cent of the total.

However, Coca-Cola Company in its 2020 Business and Environmental Social and Governance report said it is committed to taking responsibility to help solve the global packaging waste crisis by collecting and recycling a bottle or a can for each one it sells by 2030.

Coca-Cola states that according to 2020 collection rates, it has so far recorded 72 per cent of collection rate and 61 per cent of refillable packaging in Kenya.

"Our design is to make  100 per cent of our packaging recyclable globally by 2025 and use at least 50 per cent recycled material in our packaging  by 2030, collect and recycle a bottle or can for each one we sell by 2030," said Coca-Cola report.

Waste crisis

It added: "We have a responsibility to help solve the global packaging waste crisis. That's why, in 2018, we launched an ambitious sustainable packaging initiative called World Without Waste."

A report from the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and Bangor University demonstrates the links between plastic pollution and the climate crisis, and explores the role of plastic disposal, mismanaged waste and degradation.

"Plastic pollution and climate change have commonly been treated as two separate issues and sometimes are even seen as competing. Here we present an alternative view that these two issues are fundamentally linked. Primarily, we explore how plastic contributes to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the beginning to the end of its life cycle," said the report.

"Secondly, we show that more extreme weather and floods associated with climate change will exacerbate the spread of plastic in the natural environment. Finally, both issues occur throughout the marine environment, and we show that ecosystems and species can be particularly vulnerable to both, such as coral reefs that face disease spread through plastic pollution and climate-driven increased global bleaching events," added the report.

Kenya is preparing to attend the upcoming 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) hosted by the UK in partnership with Italy from October 31 to November 12, 2021, in the Scottish Event Campus (SEC) in Glasgow, Scotland.

Mr James Wakibia, an environmental activist and a photojournalist said the new app is a big win for the environment because the application enables the consumers to get the true picture of companies packaging their beverage and water in plastic and it will help push them to be more responsible when it comes to managing the end of life of their products.

“I think our government has registered far too many water companies that use plastic bottles. We need to reduce the number of these companies if they fail to be responsible. It's ridiculous that we recorded over 180 companies in Nakuru that toss plastics without being responsible. This madness must stop," he added.

Mr Griffins Ochieng, who is CEJAD's Executive Director, said: "We used to work on paper and had groups to share information about plastic waste amongst ourselves. This will be very useful for sharing more widely. Soon, we'll be using this in the field at our next brand audits."

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