The Kenya Plastics Pact
The Kenya Plastics Pact joins the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Plastics Pact network, a globally aligned response to plastic waste and pollution, that enables vital knowledge sharing and coordinated action. The Foundation, through its New Plastics Economy initiative, has united more than 1,000 organisations behind a common vision for a circular economy for plastic.
Together, we are tackling plastic pollution with plastic solutions.
A circular economy for plastics
The Kenya Plastics Pact will be a trailblazing, collaborative force that brings together key players behind a shared vision of a circular economy for plastics. We aim for a world where plastics never become waste or pollution. Together, we will implement solutions tailored to Kenya through shared knowledge, investment and unlocking industry led innovation.
Today’s economy is linear; we take, make, and waste. This model is not sustainable for businesses, people or the environment. Our resources are finite; we deplete and pollute our environment and ultimately risk going extinct as a species. We must shift our focus to a circular economy, with innovations and business models that design out waste, keep materials in use, protect and restore our environment.
Only 27% of the plastic waste generated in Kenya is collected: 8% collected for recycling and the remaining 19% disposed in unsanitary landfills or dumpsites; according to an IUCN report. The Plastics Pact therefore, provides a platform for business led action and builds on the efforts to make packaging waste a ‘thing’ of the past.
The Kenya Plastics Pact will complement and accelerate existing government programs, initiatives and policies; by and large supporting the Kenyan recycling sector by delivering jobs, skills and investment opportunities.
It will take new levels of innovation and collaboration to achieve this. The Kenya Plastics Pact will be the second in Africa after the South African Plastics Pact, and joins the growing Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Plastics Pact global network, with 10 other Plastics Pacts united behind a common vision for a circular economy for plastic. The Plastics Pact global network builds a unique platform to exchange learnings and best practices across regions to accelerate the transition to a new plastics economy.
The Approach
The Kenya Plastics Pact will work with the same principles as the other Plastics Pacts. The principles are feeding the solutions we need to find, amplify, scale and boost.