Op-ed by Nirere Sadrach, End Plastic Pollution, Uganda.
Plastics were welcomed as wonder materials believed to ease life with cheaper, convenient and flexible materials to use. However, plastics have managed to outpace our control and have colonized our day to day lives and became an increasing threat worldwide. Plastic pollution has caused the most visible damage to the environment today and continues to pose a serious threat to human health and burden economies. The problem with plastics is once they are produced they never go away. Plastics don’t degrade but rather break down to form smaller plastics known as microplastics, some of which are so small enough to enter the food chain of many animals whether in water or on land and now even the bloodstream of human beings.
Despite all this, the plastics industry is looking at ramping up production with expectations of doubling production by 2050. The last 2 decades have seen plastic production rise from 2.3 million metric tons in 1950 to 448 million metric tons in 2015. Nearly all plastics up to 99% are made from fossil fuels including oil and gas, and coal extracted from oil fields and fracking drill pads belonging to multinational petrochemical giants. Currently, 6% of total oil production is used by the plastic sector with projections reaching up to 20% by 2050. Plastics are the new coal because plastic production and use continue to grow. Currently these emissions could reach 1.34 gigatons per year which is equivalent to the emissions released by more than 295 new 500 megawatt coal-fired power plants. Corporations’ continued reliance on pumping out massive quantities of single-use plastic packaging results in pumping out massive amounts of carbon emissions, catalyzing the climate crisis. In 2020, The Coca-Cola Company produced 2,981,421 metric tons of plastic which amounts to 14,907,105 metric tons of Carbon emissions.
For developing countries like Uganda, plastic pollution has come with an ever-rising cost of waste management and public health concerns. Local communities are already facing the impacts of plastic pollution with plastic waste gaining a very dangerous reach in our environment. Our rivers, like the Mpanga and Rwizi, are flowing with plastic waste instead of clean water as they journey through various districts. Lake Victoria, Africa’s largest inland freshwater body and source of the River Nile, is being heavily polluted by plastic waste, which is affecting water quality for not only Kenya but also Tanzania, with whom they share the lake. The same risks are spreading to other countries along the River Nile. The National Environment Management Authority in Uganda confirmed that one in five fish caught in Lake Victoria has ingested plastic.
Uganda is also among the new entrants to the oil producers list with 1.4 to 1.7 billion barrels of oil to be extracted from oil fields in Lake Albert area over a period of 20 to 30 years. A number of projects to commercialize Uganda’s oil are going on. Developments of an East African Crude Oil pipeline to transport 216,000 barrels of oil are underway and there are plans for constructing an oil refinery.
The community livelihood risks posed by developing Uganda’s oil industry are immense, the EACOP pipeline traverses through 10 districts and 178 villages in Uganda only. Over 12,000 families in Uganda and Tanzania are expected to be displaced by the EACOP pipeline. There has been serious environmental damage as large expanses of natural vegetation are cleared to pave way for the EACOP and its network of other pipeline links and the construction of the airport in Kabale. Over 100 wells are to be drilled in the heart of Murchison Falls National Park, Uganda’s oldest, largest and one of the most visited parks. This puts biodiversity and tourism in harm’s way, which contributes to 10% of Uganda’s GDP and responsible for 23% of Uganda’s exports as well as earnings as much as USD 1.6 billion, at risk. Forests like Taala, Wambabya, and others which are important to climate stabilization and biodiversity conservation are at risk. Lakes such as Lake Victoria and Lake Albert are also at risk because a third of the EACOP is located in the Lake Victoria basin. A slightest leak would be catastrophic for biodiversity and the 30 to 40 million people who depend on Lake Victoria.
Countries like Uganda that have started oil production have already been taken hostage by the plastics industry. The Ugandan government has confirmed that its oil will be used partly in making plastics and is developing various petrochemical complexes in the oil-rich Albertine region. The same fate awaits other Sub-Saharan African countries that have started oil exploration activities.
To make matters worse, we are in a plastic pollution crisis created by the same companies claiming to be taking care of the environment yet have failed. Several brands have been exposed through brand audits conducted by End Plastic Pollution in Uganda. The Coca-Cola Company has been the top plastic polluter in Uganda for 3 years in a row. Almost 20% of the entire waste that has been audited belongs to brands under the The Coca-Cola product family. At just one of its plants, The Coca-Cola Company has installed a machine with capacity to make 500,000 bottles in 1 day. On the other hand Pepsi, the second top plastic polluter in Uganda has opened a plant with capacity of 116,000 bottles per hour. Abrand audit conducted in 2023 exposed companies like Unilever and Nestle that are dumping huge amounts of products packaged in single-use plastic sachets on the Ugandan market.
At this point, we are in a plastic pollution crisis, unless governments take serious action to curb plastic production. With this, in the year 2022, we saw the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) launch an international negotiating process to develop an internationally binding instrument to end plastic pollution. The global plastics treaty is a result of strong pressure that has been building globally for action on plastics for several years. The agenda is to transition from restricting the plastic pollution crisis as a marine litter problem only to an approach that addresses the full lifecycle of plastics . The global plastics treaty comes as an acknowledgement by governments that plastic pollution knows no boundaries and therefore global coordinated action is needed. So far, four rounds of negotiations have been completed, and this could be one of the most significant environmental pacts in history. The goal is for governments to adopt the global plastics treaty by the end of 2024.
Without a strong global plastics treaty, we will experience a seriously compromised future due to the continued unsustainable reliance on plastic spawned by corporate greed and government inaction. To really end plastic pollution, corporations and governments must be compelled to keep the mandate of protecting human health, the environment and put the world on a sustainable pathway. By agreeing on effective reduction measures, the government can cut back on plastics’ contribution to risking human health, catalyzing the climate crisis and biodiversity loss.
With reductions in plastic production, countries like Uganda have opportunities to unlock cost saving strategies, develop new businesses, create jobs and build justice-oriented growth models. A plastics phase-down will offer global south countries like Uganda the opportunity to demonstrate leadership in building regenerative local economies. The fact that countries like Uganda are net importers of plastic, empowering local industries to replace plastic imports with domestically produced materials and systems can strengthen the national and local economy with benefits for job creation, investments and entrepreneurial opportunities.
Remember, our planet cannot sustain more plastic. Our planet cannot sustain more pollution. Therefore a strong global plastics treaty must deliver significant, progressive and mandatory targets to cap and reduce virgin fossil plastic production. Governments should deliver ambitious targets to implement and scale up investments in reuse, refill and alternative product packaging and delivery systems. There must be a just transition to safer and more sustainable livelihoods with recognition of waste pickers and waste workers across the plastics supply chain. There has to be strong provisions that hold corporations accountable for their contribution to the plastic pollution crisis.
A strong global plastics treaty is inevitable and urgent!
ENDS.
