The effects of plastic pollution on the environment, health, and economies in low-income countries such as Kenya are massive, a report has said.
The report titled, Who Pays for Plastic Pollution? Enabling Global Equity in the Plastic Value Chain said low-and-middle-income countries bear a disproportionately large burden of the costs associated with plastic pollution.
It says this is a direct result of three structural inequities that reinforce the current plastics system.
The report was commissioned by World Wide Fund for Nature.
It is based on a model devised by experts at WWF and Dalberg, which considers the minimum lifetime cost of both upstream production and downstream waste management.
It also compares these costs between high, middle, and low-income countries as of 2019 data.
According to the report, the total lifetime cost of a kilogram of plastic is around $150 (Sh22,717) in low- and middle-income countries.
This is eight times $19 (Sh 2,877) incurred by high-income countries.
When comparing just low-income countries and their wealthier counterparts, the cost differential rises to 10 times, with low-income countries hit with costs of $200 (Sh30,290) a kg.
These unequal costs have substantial implications for low- and middle-income countries like Kenya, where negotiators will converge from November 13 to 19 for the third negotiation of the global treaty to end plastic pollution.
Six years ago, Kenya took a bold step against plastic pollution by banning single-use plastic bags.
Today, the country continues to struggle with illegal imports of single-use plastic bags.
This has shown the problem’s trans-boundary nature and the crippling inequities inherent in the current plastics value chain.
“Our take, plastic waste system is designed in a way that unfairly impacts our planets' most vulnerable and disadvantaged countries," WWF International’s Senior Director of Policy Alice Ruhweza said.
"Instead of resolving the world’s plastic pollution crisis in the most efficient way, the system shifts the bulk of the costs to those least equipped to manage them, with no accountability placed on those who produce and use the products in the first place."
She said the report signals the urgent need for an immediate overhaul of the current plastic system
“Business as usual could be a death sentence, not only for a growing number of animals but also for many of our world’s vulnerable and marginalised communities as a result of increased health risks, including the ingestion of harmful, toxic chemicals and the increased risk of flooding and disease," Ruhweza said.
"The global plastic pollution treaty is our chance to change this by including binding and equitable global rules on production and consumption.”
The first inequality according to the report is that the low-and middle-income countries have minimal influence on which plastic products are produced and how they are designed and yet are often expected to manage them.
"Product and system design considerations are typically made further upstream in countries with extensive plastic production and by multinational companies headquartered in high-income countries," it said.
As of 2019, only nine per cent of plastic waste was being recycled.
Currently, around 60 per cent of global plastic production is for single-use products, which are designed to be thrown away after just one use.
The second inequity is that the rate of plastic production, particularly for single-use plastic, is far outpacing the availability of technical and financial resources for waste management in low and middle income countries.
"Without reducing plastic production and consumption, low and middle-income countries will continue to bear the highest burden of plastic pollution’s direct environmental and socio-economic impacts," the report said.
The third inequity is that the system lacks a fair way for holding countries and companies to account for their action, or inaction, on plastic pollution.
The report says this has had impacts on health, environment, and economy of these low and middle-income countries.
"With no common obligations across all jurisdictions and companies for supporting a circular, just and non-toxic plastics economy, low-and middle-income countries end up paying the steeper price," it said.
The report said establishing and implementing a UN global plastic pollution treaty based on harmonised and binding global rules can help create a fairer system that gives the countries the most effective and efficient solutions.