Apollo Kakembo and his family are tilling land in Buikwe district, central Uganda, in preparation for the new planting season.

However, theirs is no easy task. Occasionally, they have to stop digging to separate polythene (kaveera) from the soil as they prepare the field. A retired teacher, Kakembo recently acquired the land with his pension money.

“We have barely covered much ground, but see all those heaps! It’s annoying to find plastic materials everywhere,” he says.

A blocked drainage channel with empty plastic bottles near the railway line in Ndeeba, Kampala. Residents say when it rains, it floods and the road becomes impassable. Photo by Colleb Mugume

A blocked drainage channel with empty plastic bottles near the railway line in Ndeeba, Kampala. Residents say when it rains, it floods and the road becomes impassable. Photo by Colleb Mugume

“If things continue like this, I am not sure if we will be getting anything from here,” he says, his face glistening with sweat. Like in Kakembo’s garden, elsewhere in Uganda, plastic materials are becoming a menace.

Some are ending up on land, while others are getting into water bodies, which poses a risk to millions of people that depend on them for their water needs.

Experts blame this trend on mismanaging plastic waste through acts such as people throwing bottles out of their cars.

A 2021 report released in Rome titled Assessment of Agricultural Plastics and their Sustainability by Food and Agriculture Organisation, says around 91 million tonnes of plastic is mismanaged, 31 million tonnes of which leaks into the environment, including the oceans.

Men sorting plastic bottles at a collection centre in Katwe, Kampala.

Men sorting plastic bottles at a collection centre in Katwe, Kampala.

When exposed to open burning, for example, in cases where farmers like Kakembo would want to get rid of it from their garden, plastics release a range of contaminants into the atmosphere that have potential harm to human health and the environment.

According to the report, these contaminants include polychlorinated dibenzodioxins and dibenzofurans. Both of these are listed as persistent organic pollutants.

“These are associated with human health effects including non-cancer effects on the skin, liver, endocrine, nervous, immune and reproductive systems and cancers,” the report says.

When left on land for a long time, the plastics are known to leach (leak) into the soils, thereby contaminating water bodies and even plants, which has long term effects on human and animal health.

Extent of problem

According to the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA), Uganda generates 600 tonnes of plastics daily. About 40% of plastic waste is collected for recycling, while 60% is left in the environment.

According to NEMA, about three quarters of all the plastic waste produced in Uganda every year. Polyethylene terephthalate (PET), associated with beverages such as mineral water and other juices, is the most common plastic waste found in the environment, according to a 2021 baseline study conducted under the Greater Kampala Metropolitan Area PET Plastic Recycling Partnership.

“Exposure to plastic waste is considered dangerous to human life, potentially affecting the hormonal, fertility and neurological capabilities of the human body. Open burning of plastic contributes to air pollution. This is responsible for about 20% of neonatal deaths,” NEMA executive director Dr Akankwasah Barirega told journalists in Kampala in November last year.

“If we don’t tackle this plastic pollution, it has the capacity to crush our fisheries industry,” he says.

Who is to blame?

Frank Muramuzi, the executive director of National Association of Professional Environmentalists, blames the problem on the laxity of environment watchdogs such as NEMA, and Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS).

“As far as we are concerned, the population has no problem. What they (public) need is guidance which has, unfortunately, not come,” he says.

Citing a development in 2000 when the Government went for a total ban on polythene bags (kaveera), Muramuzi said the public largely adhered to the directives.

That ban came after environmentalists, the health ministry and the Uganda Cancer Institute made it clear that kaveera use is harmful to both the environment, human and livestock health.

“When NEMA said Ugandans should go for alternatives (to kaveera), people bought into the idea and complied,” he adds.

Muramuzi says, however, they were left perplexed when NEMA later relaxed its enforcement and vigilance. This resulted in the previously discredited kaveera coming back into the public domain.

He says the change of heart was to appease investors in the plastics business under the guise of ‘promoting sustainable development’.

“The Government is getting money from investors, but it is also losing it [on addressing the consequences of a failure to carry out their watchdogrole],” he says.

“Look at what happened yesterday (May 11, 2023) on Masaka Road (flooding). We are now in the evening of a total collapse of our ability to protect ourselves. You continue to degrade the environment and you think nature will be on your side? No!”

He says unless the Government wakes up and stops those who flout the laws on the environment, the country is headed for a disaster.

Virchand Shah, a chemical engineer, agrees.

Shah, who has an experience of 40 years in dealing with plastics as a manufacturer, says due to their versatility, the plastics have become an indispensable part to humanity.

He says he cannot think of any other material that has transformed living standards of humans the way plastics have since their discovery 150 years ago. Shah says the problem lies in not ensuring that disposal is properly managed.

“That is where over 90% of the problem lies, not only in Uganda, but the world as a whole,” he says.

Shah says currently, some people are making bricks out of plastic waste. Plastics can also be used for making fencing posts and sealing potholes, he adds.

What the law says

When contacted, NEMA acknowledged challenges in carrying out its mandate, but noted that more is being done to tackle the problem than what it is getting credit for.

NEMA senior public relations officer Tony Achidiria says the fact that the Government agreed to pass the new NEMA law (NEMA ACT 2019) is itself a sign of commitment.

“Section 76 of the Act is about manufacture of plastic products. Unlike in the past, the new law has sections that specifically target plastics,” he says.

Section 76 of the Act says: “The import, export, local manufacture, use or re-use of categories of plastic carrier bags or plastic products made of polymers of ethene (polythene) and propylene(polypropylene) is prohibited, except for plastic carrier bags or plastic products made of polymers of ethene (polythene) and propylene (polypropylene) of above 30 microns.”

Section 76, sub-section 3, indicates that a person who manufactures or imports plastics or plastic products shall, as a precondition for continued operation, ensure that recycling is part of that person’s active operations, label the plastics or plastic product, put in place a mechanism that is satisfactory to the minister to buy back or remove from the environment plastic and plastic products.

Sub-section 4 gives UNBS powers to enforce the ban on materials that do not meet the 30 microns threshold.

Achidria says what is remaining is galvanising the public to support them to overcome the hurdles remaining in the implementation of the law.

One of the challenges is how to prevail over the manufacturers of plastics in regard to undertaking recycling as an active part of their processes “as a mechanism to remove plastics from the environment”.

“If a plastic product is found in the environment, it is the obligation for that company to remove it. It is also a requirement for a company manufacturing plastic in Uganda to label the product,” he says.

However, many are not doing it “because of the nature of disposal in Uganda”.

Achidria says they are encouraging manufacturers to either outsource collection of plastics on their behalf or set up a system where they are able to buy back the plastics.

However, he acknowledges that this has challenges as “only so much can be harvested”.

This, he says, is due to limitations in the technology being used to recycle plastics in Uganda.

“We have found out that the quality of what is recycled is much lower instead of making a replica of the original,” he says.

As such, Achidria says, if a bottle of mineral water is discarded after one has drunk the water, the same bottle cannot be used for the same purpose after recycling.

How big is the plastic industry in Uganda?

Uganda imports approximately 8,768,103 metric tonnes of plastic currently, up from 1.9 metric tonnes of plastics imported between 1994 and 2017.

The common plastics imported include for making food containers, soft drinks and water bottles, milk jugs, water jugs and film products like bags and sacks.

They are imported from China, Saudi Arabia, India, Kenya and United Arab Emirates.

Although there were no statistics of how much plastic Uganda makes, it is revealed that Uganda’s plastic export is predicted to increase to $36m (about sh135b) by 2026, up from $31m (sh116b) in 2021, according to a recent paper published in the International Journal of Scientific Advances.

Titled Plastic Packaging: A Study on Plastic Imports in Uganda, the paper was co-authoredby Cynthia Mutonyi Wandeka, Nicholas Kiggundu and Raymonds Mutumba under the department of agricultural and biosystems engineering, Makerere University.

“The challenge associated with this increase in imports, combined with growing in-country production of plastic packaging material, is that it is going to add more pressure to an already struggling waste management system,” the authors say.

They add that the scale of the challenge is large because of the hundreds of tonnes of plastics Uganda generates each day.

“Estimates show that Kampala Capital City Authority spends $1.53m (sh5.6b) per month to remove only 30% of the total plastic waste generated,” they say.

What is the way forward?

Through a process called pyrolysis, waste plastics can be converted into alternative energy as fuel for diesel engines.

Although an expensive venture, countries like Ethiopia, India and Mauritius have tried it out to address their plastics problem.

According to online sources, India alone reported saving approximately $3.8b (sh14 trillion) every year, usually spent on importing fuel produced from crude oil, by using this technology.

Shah says with the right research, Uganda, too, should adopt this in the push to address the plastic problem.

Shah, who is also the proprietor of Afloplastics, a plastic manufacturer, says the idea of segregating waste can help make a difference to Uganda’s current problem.

This will ease work for recyclers and decrease the number of plastics that end up in the environment.

“In some countries, you cannot mix all different kinds of garbage in one place. If the Government is able to enforce that, they will not only save the environment, but also earn money (through more taxes from taxing recyclers),” he says.

In a research paper titled Plastic Packaging: A Study on Plastic Imports in Uganda, the department of agricultural and biosystems engineering at Makerere University recommends increasing public health education about the dangers of plastics.

“With education inclusion, there’s a 75% chance of greater sustainability of all these waste reduction strategies since management systems are handled correctly throughout the whole process,” it says.

It also recommends that the Government should get more involved by building larger material handling sites and also supporting the smaller privately owned plastic recycling businesses.

Small incentives like grants, space allocation for collection centres at district, county and sub-county levels would also go a long way in easing the work of these companies, consequently collectively reducing the scourge of plastic waste in Uganda.

Plastic bag waste is usually burnt for cooking in some areas of the world and they produce toxins like furan and dioxin. This utilisation of plastics exposes mostly women and children to prolonged toxic emissions since they are mostly involved in cooking.

“Other safer means of lighting stoves or energy sources, therefore, have to be implemented in order to reduce this life-threatening impact of plastics,” the study adds.

Can Uganda get over the plastics menace?

About 40% of plastic waste is collected for recycling while 60% is left in the environment.

A lady washing polythene bags for recycling in Buwaate, Wakiso district. Experts say unless something is done to stop those who flout the laws on the environment, the country is headed for a disaster.

John Masaba

Journalist @New Vision