I recently watched a YouTube documentary titled Tribulations of Sea Turtles that shed light on how sea turtles choke on plastic bags in Kilifi. It was not just another sad environmental story, it was personal. Those bags, indistinguishable from the ones I may have mindlessly tossed after one use, have become silent killers.
It’s ironic, isn’t it? Plastic, invented in the early 1900s to protect nature as a substitute for scarce natural resources like ivory and tortoiseshell, is now its greatest tormentor.
I remember growing up near a dumpsite in Kisumu, where plastic pollution was not an abstract concept; it was part of my childhood landscape. I played in fields of discarded wrappers, oblivious to the invisible harm they represented.
The cruel irony is now stark. That convenient plastic bottle, emptied in five minutes, will haunt the fish in Lake Victoria long after we are gone. This is the legacy we are thoughtlessly bequeathing.
This year’s World Environment Day theme, Ending Plastic Pollution, is more than a catchy slogan—it’s a desperate call to action. It is time to rethink not just how we use plastics but how we consume everything.
Plastic, in its myriad forms, has infiltrated every facet of our lives, from the packaging encasing our food to the fibres in our clothes.
The insidious creep of microplastics means we are not just witnessing the poisoning of our wildlife—like the Nile perch with bellies full of plastic fragments —we are actively ingesting these synthetic invaders in our ugali and water.
We are, quite literally, poisoning ourselves while lauding our progress.
Recycling is helpful, but it is not enough. The most effective way to combat plastic pollution is by minimising or refusing to use it. Prevention trumps cure, and small, everyday actions can create a ripple effect.
Kenya has already shown environmental leadership through its plastic bag ban, but recycling systems remain underdeveloped.
Informal recycling practices, like repurposing jerrycans and soda bottles, reveal our ingenuity. But systemic challenges—lack of bins, unclear recycling instructions, and non-recyclable packaging—hinder widespread progress.
Counties must step up with standardised, colour-coded bin systems in public spaces. Retailers can install recycling stations, and companies should adopt extended producer responsibility programmes like bottle deposit schemes.
Grassroots recyclers like Mr Green Africa are already showing how waste can be transformed into valuable resources. With proper support, Kenya’s innovative spirit could lead the continent in developing a circular economy. Recycling isn’t broken—we just need better systems to make it work.
The irony is that Kenya possesses a rich heritage of eco-friendly practices. Our grandparents didn’t need lectures on sustainability, they lived it.
Food wrapped in banana leaves; goods carried in woven baskets—these are not quaint relics of the past but templates for our future. We must revive and modernise these traditions, teaching them in our schools alongside cutting-edge innovations like edible packaging.
The choice is stark, and it is ours to make with every item we accept or refuse. Let’s choose a future where we are masters of our consumption, not slaves to plastic.
The government has a critical role to play by actively championing local innovators through tangible support like tax incentives and dedicated funding.
Visionary projects like KOKO Networks' bioethanol stoves prove that sustainable alternatives can outperform polluting options when properly nurtured. Making reusable containers and plant-based packaging affordable and ubiquitous is not just an environmental strategy; it's an economic and social imperative.
We did not stumble into this plastic crisis overnight, and the solutions will indeed require sustained, collective effort. But let us be clear: gradualism in the face of an accelerating catastrophe is a luxury we no longer have. If we fail to act decisively now, the tallest landmarks in our cities will not be monuments to our progress, but mountains of our waste.
The writer is an environmental science specialist and can be reached via [email protected]
