By Lerato Tsotetsi (Supporter Engagement Manager at Greenpeace Africa)
Zero Waste Day (30 March 2023), and what that means is we must minimise our waste as much as possible.
Ever ask yourself where your waste, specifically plastic, goes after you get rid of it in your waste bin?
After you throw it in the trash, your local waste collectors come by maybe weekly to empty it into a dump truck. Then, it lands in a massive warehouse, sorted by material type and prepared for possible recycling.
So what happens if the material is unrecyclable?
This waste will live longer in a toxic landfill. Imagine living right next door to a landfill, a tower of garbage of all sorts, including plastic. Imagine what your life and health would be like. This is the reality for some Africans.
This is why we’re demanding African governments to offer you and I reuse and refill options so that we can slash our plastic waste.
Now, you might be doing your best to help solve the plastic pollution problem by separating and recycling your waste. By all means, if you are, please continue doing this.
Naturally, you and I will chuck it away and hope it’ll be recycled. But do you really know where “away” is?
Did you know that every piece of plastic ever created still exists?
[1] To make matters worse, the plastic industry capitalises on “false solutions” such as recycling and incinerating waste. But the truth is loads of plastic waste is being shipped off to developing countries rather than recycled. It also demonstrates the impact of plastic at every stage of its production on underprivileged communities.
This is what we call waste colonialism [2] – developed countries shipping waste to underdeveloped countries that already have their own waste to deal with.
The fact is recycling is not a solution to our plastic pollution crisis. [3] A report by UNEP not only supports this fact but shows us the devastating impact of single-use plastic pollution.
Together our voices will be strong as we call for an end to corporate plastic pollution by convincing executives at Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Nestle, Unilever and many others to stop using single-use plastic packaging.
These companies continue to increase their production of single-use plastic while our people and oceans suffer. They tell us to recycle more, but over 90% of plastic is not recycled, and they keep producing more and more. We cannot recycle our way out of this mess!
Luckily, we have some inspiring reuse and refill projects from the Global South, which show that we are more than eager and ready to find solutions to the plastic pollution crisis. [4]
For too long, corporations have been telling us that the responsibility [5] for dealing with their waste lies solely with us, the consumers. It’s time we make corporations take responsibility for this problem. One way to do this is by demanding that African governments sign onto and get to work with a legally binding plastics treaty [6] and end waste colonialism.
