This is the 39th post in a blog series to be published in 2021 by the Secretariat on behalf of the AU High-Level Panel on Emerging Technologies (APET) and the Calestous Juma Executive Dialogues (CJED)

Africa’s rapid population growth, augmenting socio-economic activities, and ever-expanding urbanisation has led to the increased production and utilisation of plastic products.[1] Plastic pollution is caused by the accumulation of plastic waste in the environment[2] and has become one of the most pressing environmental concerns across the African continent. This is due in part to the high production of disposable plastic products that have overwhelmed the continent’s ability to dispose of them properly. Unfortunately, their incremental utilisation and production is void of efficient disposal infrastructure and management systems.

It has been reported that in Sub-Saharan Africa alone, approximately 17 million tonnes of plastic waste are produced annually, often disposed of in open dumpsites. Consequently, plastic waste finds its way to rivers, lakes, and the ocean. This gigantic amount of waste threatens the continent’s environmental, land, and sea animal life as well as human livelihood. It threatens the attainment of the African Union’s Agenda 2063 Goal Number 7 that strives for an environmentally sustainable and climate-resilient economies within African communities.

Fig. 1. Waste generation rates and urban population centers in Africa[3].

Plastic pollution is not only an environmental challenge for Africa but also a major socio-economic development challenge. This is because plastic waste negatively impacts socio-economic activities such as biodiversity suitable for tourism and agriculture, infrastructural development and growth, and fisheries.[4]

Plastic structural composition constitutes fossil hydrocarbons derived from organic monomers such as polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene, polyvinyl chloride and bisphenol A that are non-biodegradable. Since these plastics are non-biodegradable, they cannot easily decompose through regular biochemical processes after their disposal. The non-biodegradable turn to decompose over a long period through extended half-lives. As the decomposition occurs over that long period, the plastics release fillers, plasticisers, and toxic monomers. Some of these compounds being released into the environment, such as bisphenol A have been shown to be carcinogenic[5] , which may potentially contaminate water bodies that human beings and animals use.[6] This tenacity allows plastic waste not just to accumulate in sheer numbers and volume but also act as toxins and microplastics in the environment. Regrettably, only 9% of the plastics produced worldwide is recycled, and only 27% is burned using incinerators.[7],[8]

Several African countries have been increasingly reducing plastic pollution by adopting and implementing sustainable plastic waste management systems. This is accomplished by leveraging new plastic waste management technologies; thereby, protecting the environment.

Kenya’s Capital City of Nairobi generates an estimated 2,400 tonnes of solid waste daily, and that waste constitute about 20% of plastic waste.[9] Consequently, Kenya has been increasingly adopting alternative uses of waste material. The Gjenge Makers Limited, a social enterprise, utilises plastics to develop alternative and affordable building materials. This company manufactures pavers for exterior flooring that constitute concrete and/or bricks derived from recycled plastic waste by sourcing their raw material from post-industrial plastic waste and post-consumer plastic waste recycling. Interestingly, the company is further pursuing its product range to include construction posts, plastics, timber, and building blocks developed from recycled plastic waste.

Recycled Plastic transformed into building bricks with twice the weight threshold of concrete blocks in Kenya[10]

Ghana produces approximately 1.1 million tonnes of plastic waste each year, and only 5% of that waste material is collected and recycled. [11] Most of Ghana’s plastic waste is predominately collected and cleaned by informal waste pickers within local communities. As such, there are limited formalised institutions and companies working to improve Ghana’s management mechanisms for waste materials. To improve plastic waste management data collection, a pilot project between the World Economic Forum, Global Plastic Action Partnership, and SAP created a cohesive group of approximately 2,000 waste pickers. These waste pickers measured the quantities and types of plastics that they were collecting.[12] The collected data information was then analysed alongside the prices paid throughout the value chain by buyers in Ghana and internationally. Consequently, this data was utilised to inform Ghana’s policymaking towards formulating recycling programmes such as building recycling plants. Furthermore, programmes such as creating centralised plastic waste collection places were created to benefit the informal waste pickers with fair pricing mechanisms of their collected waste material.

South Africa is also implementing policy and programme efforts towards managing the situation of plastic waste against polluting the environment. As such, South Africa is adopting and implementing waste-to-energy technologies to address the plastic waste challenge. In this case, the waste-to-energy technologies can convert the energy content of different types of waste into various forms of valuable energy. Thus, South Africa is in the process of building waste plastic energy plants. Lesedi Nuclear Services is currently trying to produce approximately 50 megawatts of electricity by utilising pyrolysis technology.[13] This pyrolysis technology process entails heating the plastic waste to approximately 400°C in an initial vessel so to produce synthesis gas. The synthesis gas is then utilised to power gas engines that can generate electricity.

Therefore, the African Union Panel on Emerging Technologies (APET) encourages African governments to utilise digital and environmentally-friendly technologies to enable effective waste material management systems across the African continent.[14] The use of digital technologies will enable the African continent to collect sufficient plastic waste data to improve plastic waste management systems. APET also believes that improving plastic waste management systems can adequately support African entrepreneurs pursuing sustainable waste management practices across the African continent. Furthermore, APET is also advising African countries to pursue reusable plastic materials, avoid single-use plastics where possible to enable recyclability. African countries can also pursue biodegradable plastics that can easily decompose once disposed of.

APET notes that plastic waste has become detrimental to both flora and fauna. Therefore, Africa should improve the management of waste, including plastic waste management and infrastructural systems. Thus, APET is encouraging bolstered investments towards the management of waste. This can be accomplished through public-private partnerships among various stakeholders. Such efforts can include social entrepreneurship that can enhance the efforts of cleaning up plastic waste. This is because APET believes that Africa can achieve a clean and safe continent by using sustainable technologies as per the aspirations of AU’s Agenda 2063 and the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals. A clean waste-plastic-free world is possible. Modern technologies can ensure an environmentally sustainable and climate change resilient Africa for generations to come.

Featured Bloggers – APET Secretariat

Justina Dugbazah

Barbara Glover

Bhekani Mbuli

Chifundo Kungade 

 

[1] https://www.nepad.org/blog/what-waste-innovations-africas-waste-material-management.

[2] https://solarimpulse.com/plastic-pollution-solutions?utm_term=plastic%20pollution&utm_campaign=Solutions&utm_source=adwords&utm_medium=ppc&hsa_acc=1409680977&hsa_cam=11451944566&hsa_grp=117528790008&hsa_ad=474951699003&hsa_src=g&hsa_tgt=kwd-130553264&hsa_kw=plastic%20pollution&hsa_mt=b&hsa_net=adwords&hsa_ver=3&gclid=CjwKCAjwk6-LBhBZEiwAOUUDp5CUvzxgTITdXvYY66oAgxyfCOBF8Ygc9bW-VpuWruLcldwmkBM07RoCNTMQAvD_BwE

[3] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308597X17305286#f0020

[4] https://www.environment.gov.za/plasticpollution.

[5] Darcie D Seachrist, Kristen W. Bonk, Shuk-Mei Ho, Gail S. Prins, Ana M. Soto, Ruth A. Keri, A Review of the Carcinogenic Potential of Bisphenol A, Reprod Toxicol. 2016 Jan; 59: 167–182. doi: 10.1016/j.reprotox.2015.09.006.

T[6] https://mg.co.za/environment/2021-03-31-plastic-pollution-a-huge-threat-to-marginalised-groups-un-report-finds/.

[7] https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/plastic-produced-recycling-waste-ocean-trash-debris-environment.

[8] https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/plastic-pollution.

[9] https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2021/03/11/battling-kenya-plastic-waste-young-kenyan-woman-transforming-waste-into-sustainable-and-affordable-building-materials.

[10] https://gjenge.co.ke/#

[11] https://www.rfi.fr/en/africa/20210626-ghana-s-plastic-house-one-idea-to-deal-with-the-country-s-pollution-africa-environment-recycling.

[12] https://www.weforum.org/our-impact/waste-to-wages-technology-is-a-game-changer-in-ghana-s-fight-against-plastic-pollution/.

[13] https://www.afrik21.africa/en/south-africa-lesedi-to-convert-plastics-into-electricity-via-pyrolysis/.

[14] https://www.nepad.org/blog/what-waste-innovations-africas-waste-material-management.