The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has called on governments in Africa and other parts of the world to deliver a strong and ambitious deal to end plastic pollution.
Development Diaries reports that the UN agency made the call in commemoration of the 2023 World Environment Day.
World Environment Day, which is observed annually on 05 June, encourages awareness and action for the protection of the environment.
Egypt generates 3,037,675 metric tonnes of waste in Africa yearly, according to a report by Business Insider.
Speaking on the theme ‘solutions to plastic pollution’, Executive Director of UNEP, Inger Andersen, said, ‘For the sake of the planet’s health, for the sake of our health, for the sake of our prosperity, we must end plastic pollution.
‘This will take nothing less than a complete redesign of how we produce, use, recover and dispose of plastics and products that contain them.
‘We must redesign products to eliminate or use less plastic – particularly problematic and unnecessary plastics.
‘Redesign product packaging to use less plastic. Redesign systems and products for reuse and recyclability. Redesign the system for justice – so that workers in the informal waste sector and other vulnerable communities have access to decent jobs’.
She noted that Ivory Coast banned single-use plastic bags in 2013 and is one of 15 Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) that agreed to ban plastic packaging by 2025. Hence, all countries must pick up the pace.
‘Each year of delay means more plastic waste gushing into the environment. Governments must deliver a strong and ambitious deal to end plastic pollution. A deal that addresses plastics across the whole lifecycle’, she said.
‘A deal that is truly inclusive – engaging informal waste sector workers, Indigenous Peoples, civil society, and academia. A deal that ensures support for developing nations’.
She also called on industry and the private sector to get creative and redesign products and packaging to eliminate or use less plastic; to be more easily reusable, to be more easily recyclable and repairable.
Photo source: Moancho
