Uganda’s plastic policy polluting East Africa

A new report shows that plastic-making industries have shifted from Uganda’s neighbours that have strict plastic regulations. As a result, they are churning out more plastics than Uganda needs, which has resulted in cross-border smuggling, writes Gerald Tenywa.

Brenda Auma, a resident of Sofia market at the border between Uganda and Kenya, does not like what she sees.

She believes that there is no place that is as polluted with plastic waste as Busia town in Uganda.

“We have soils choking on plastics, plastics flying in the air,” Auma says.

Trucks loaded with plastics at the Katwe waste collecting centre in Katwe, a Kampala suburb.

She says some plastics are smuggled from Uganda into Kenya through Busia.

She also pointed out that some plastics from Kenya also enter Uganda through Sofia market. In short, that market is both an entry and exit point for plastics moving between the two East African countries, Uganda and Kenya.

“Plastic bags are smuggled between Uganda and Kenya,” Geoffrey Kamese, the executive director of Biovision Africa, a local non-governmental organisation, says.

“We have more plastic going out through illegal export than coming into Uganda (illegal import).”

Kamese also says there is smuggling of plastic bags taking place between Uganda and Tanzania.

This comes hot on the heels of a research undertaken by Nipe Fagio in collaboration with Biovision Africa in Uganda, Global Initiative for Environment and Reconciliation in Rwanda and the Centre for Environmental Justice and Development in Kenya.

The four organisations recently released an investigative report on the illegal trade and smuggling of plastic bags in the East African Community.

The report analyses the state of single-use plastic bags in four countries and examines the trade and flow of plastic carrier bags, which have been fully banned in Tanzania, Kenya, and Rwanda, but are still found in the markets and on the streets.

Other sources say the biggest destination for Uganda’s plastics is DR Congo and South Sudan.

The plastics are exported through Uganda’s Bunagana border post into DR Congo and through Uganda’s Cyanika border crossing with Rwanda where it goes to Goma in DR Congo.

Kamese says the report on the cross-border smuggling of plastics shows that policy implementation on plastics is not strong enough to regulate the production and use of plastics.

In addition, single-use plastics were banned in Kenya, Rwanda and Tanazania, but are still in use in Uganda.

“We have a spillover of single-use plastics across the porous borders within the East African Community (EAC),” Kamese said, adding that EAC has an opportunity to prove that it is not a talking shop.

He also pointed out that plastic pollution has trans-boundary effects, meaning that plastics from any of the East African countries will end up in Lake Victoria, which is shared by Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania.

The catchment of Lake Victoria is also shared by Rwanda and Burundi.

“We need collective action to fight plastic pollution,” Kamese says.

Over time, according to Kamese, plastic-making industries have moved to Uganda as Rwanda, Tanzania and Kenya put in place anti-plastic measures to fight single-use plastics.

“We have industries that have moved from other countries and what they are producing is in excess of what we need,” he says, adding that this was one of the reasons behind smuggling of plastic bags.

Kamese added: “As a country (Uganda) we can do better to regulate plastic bags. We (Uganda) are creating a spillover effect and destroying the environment, which sustains the economies of the East African countries.”

The East African countries largely depend on agriculture and nature-based tourism to sustain their populations, which are still trapped in poverty, according to Kamese.

Global treaty on plastics There are growing concerns over the pollution of water ways including oceans, seas, lakes and rivers.

As a result of activism around the world, countries under the UN are in the advanced stages of making a global treaty that outlaws plastics, particularly single-use plastics.

On May 24-28, a meeting in which Uganda will be represented by a delegation led by Barirega Akankwasah, the executive director of National Environment Management Authority (NEMA), will take place in Paris, France.

“The focus is to see which plastics will be banned given their impact on soil and water,” a source, who spoke to New Vision on condition of anonymity, says.

There will be a post meeting for eastern Africa ahead of the debate and passing of the global treaty on plastics, according to the source.

“We have to drum up to re-awaken the Government to put in place a regulatory policy framework that will help us use plastics without hurting the environment and the population,” Richard Kimbowa, the executive director of Uganda Coalition for Sustainable Development, says.

Plastics are extremely durable, making trans-boundary movements of plastic waste a major concern. Most polymers manufactured today are likely to persist for many decades and probably for centuries, according to the Basel Convention.

Also, pieces of plastics accumulate, for example, on beaches or sink floor. These can cause harm directly to marine animals, for example getting entangled in the debris.

Under the influence of sunshine and saltwater, larger pieces can break into microplastics.

Microplastics are now widely distributed through oceans and can be vectors for pollutants and pathogens, according to Basel Convention.

In addition to polymers, additives such as flame retardants and plasticisers are added to synthetic materials to increase their flexibility, transparency, durability and longevity.

Some of the substances are persistent organic pollutants listed under the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants.

A variety of international and regional instruments and approaches exist to protect biodiversity, manage hazardous chemicals and wastes, and prevent pollution of marine environment from ocean-based and land-based sources of pollution, according to the Basel Convention.

“The co-operation among those initiatives and the activities is key to effectively addressing this global environmental challenge.”

In addition to this, Uganda is party to the UNEP Basel Convention on the control of trans-boundary movements of hazardous wastes and their disposal, the UNEP Rotterdam Convention September 1998, the Stockholm Convention on persistent organic pollutants and the Rio Declaration of Environment and Development 1992.

However, the existing global legal framework is unfi t to tackle plastic pollution.

As a result, countries of the world including Uganda support a proposal to work on a global treaty to address the plastic waste crisis.

New anti-plastic move

Daniel Babikwa, the director, district support co-ordination and public education at NEMA, said Uganda recognises the threat and dangers posed by plastic litter and associated pollution.

“Plastic has become the most dominant waste in the country both on land and in the water bodies,” he says, adding that a large number of inland fresh water bodies are being suffocated by plastic litter.

“This is in addition to the pollution caused on land, in the drainage systems, in towns, dump sites and parks.”

In 2009 and 2010, the Government enacted the Finance Act, 2009 permitting plastic bags and other plastics for exceptional use regulations of 2010.

The 2009 Finance Act prohibited the importation, local manufacture, sale or use of polyethylene bags and materials. The ban specifically affected plastic carrier bags used for conveyance of goods.

The law did not provide for specific microns because the other permitted plastics for exceptional use may vary in micron, according to Babikwa.

The Government embarked on the enforcement of the ban in 2015 under the Finance Act 2009.

“The opposition resulted into a temporary court injunction which prevented the Government from further enforcement and as such reducing the momentum of anti-plastic pollution drive,” Babikwa says.

“Uganda has reviewed the environment law, the National Environment Act 2019, and banned all plastic carrier bags under 30 microns.

He added: “It has, in addition, imposed producer extended responsibility as part of the polluter-pays principle. This will ensure that producers of all materials with potential to pollute will have the duty to follow the management of their product through its life cycle.”

The law has brought on board a cross-section of other actors including, the Office of the Prime Minister, the National Bureau of Standards, and URA in addition to NEMA to implement the provisions of the law on plastic pollution.

The Government has also imposed a mandatory condition to all plastic manufacturers to establish recycling plants and ensure that they follow their plastic material and bring it back for recycling. The days of single-use plastics seem to be numbered.

But civil society activists say the Government needs to roll out workable solutions with the private sector and ensure that the polluters of the environment clean up their mess.

They also say Uganda also needs to work with its counterparts in the EAC to secure the shared ecological systems such as Lake Victoria.

The bans against plastics should be accompanied with proper waste management, according to activists.

Once it is done properly and consistently, people like Auma will smile again and stop being bystanders as the plastics crisis escalates.

Key facts and figures 

Uganda generates 600 tonnes of plastics daily n About 40% of plastic waste is collected for recycling

60% of plastics are left in the environment

Scientists say plastics cause infertility, cancer, lung disease and birth defects.

The ban

As far back as 2009, Uganda imposed a ban on single-use plastics due to lack of regulations, according to Kamese.

The National Environment Act, 2019 provides for the banning of single-use plastics of 30 microns and below.

The Uganda National Bureau of Standards has the responsibility of enforcing the anti-plastics regulation under the National Environment Act.

The law requires labelling of plastics for easy traceability. After false starts to the much-hyped bans on plastics, the problem of plastic bags has not disappeared.

“We are not saying all plastics are bad because we have plastics put to important applications in construction and the making of motor vehicle parts,” he says.

“There is harmful plastic, particularly the single-use plastics.” The chemicals, which are used to make plastic bags are imported from Kenya into Uganda.

“We have chemicals coming in but Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) is not bothered about what the chemicals produce,” he says.

He says there is lack of transparency concerning the chemicals, which are imported into the country not only within URA, but also among the manufacturers themselves.

“We do not know the chemicals they are using and how dangerous they are to the environment,” says Kamese.

“What happens when hot substances like water or tea are put in plastics?”

He added: “What quantities of plastics are churned out by the plastic industries? How much can we recycle without posing health risks to the population?”

Kamese says that the plastic waste industry is keeping the most important stakeholders — the population — in the dark yet they need their co-operation to overcome the problem of plastic pollution.

“As civil society, we want data on the chemicals and amounts of plastics that they are making and we cannot get it. That is the dilemma that we are operating in. The companies and Government need to share information for creating public awareness. We must also hold them accountable.”