A stroll along the beaches of Watamu, Kenya used to mean navigating a sea of garbage, including piles of plastic water bottles.
The trash marred what was otherwise an idyllic setting on the Indian Ocean – and it was toxic for the small town’s tourism industry.
But today, Watamu’s beaches are dramatically cleaner thanks to a novel recycling programme headed by the Watamu Marine Association, a grassroots organization.
With financial support from the hotels clustered along Watamu’ shore, the association pays community members to collect rubbish from the beach. The trash is taken to a local recycling centre where it’s sorted and, in the case of plastic, chopped up into small flakes, before being sold to local manufacturers.
"What we're hoping to achieve is a circular economy whereby the waste is brought in, transformed into something else and sold off,” said project coordinator Julie Myra Alego. “The money comes back and keeps the whole process sustainable.”
The Watamu Marine Association is part of the Global Partnership on Marine Litter, which is supported by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
The partnership is designed to address what experts call a plastic pollution crisis unfolding in the world’s oceans. Some 8 million tonnes of plastic end up in the sea every year, sickening wildlife, clogging fishing nets and sometimes ending up on dinner plates. If trends continue, the oceans could contain more plastic than fish by 2050, say researchers.
UNEP’s work with the marine litter partnership is part of an effort to combat plastic pollution in East Africa. Earlier this year, UNEP co-sponsored a month-long voyage by the Flipflopi, a traditional Indian Ocean dhow made from recycled plastic. The boat’s crew, a mix of sailors, scientists and activists, circumnavigated Lake Victoria, Africa’s biggest body of water, stopping in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda to tout the importance of recycling.
When you actually see over time that the beach cleanups are bringing a change… you get encouraged to keep on doing more.
In 2018, UNEP joined forces with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation to tackle one of the world’s most dangerous addictions: single-use plastics. Through that Global Commitment to the New Plastics Economy, UNEP and partners are lobbying private and public sector leaders to commit to a circular economy around plastics.
In recent years, the world has made tentative progress in the battle against marine plastic, with a growing number of governments and businesses agreeing to phase out some plastic packaging, including single-use plastic bags, and advancements in recycling and composting systems.
"Sometimes when you read about how bad the situation is worldwide it tends to discourage you, said Alego. “But when you actually see over time that the beach cleanups are bringing a change to the small place where you are, in our case Watamu, you get encouraged to keep on doing more.”
The United Nations General Assembly has declared the years 2021 through 2030 the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. Led by the United Nations Environment Programme and the Food and Agriculture Organization, the UN Decade is designed to prevent, halt and reverse the degradation of ecosystems worldwide. This global call to action will be launched on 5 June, World Environment Day. The UN Decade will draw together political support, scientific research and financial muscle to massively scale up restoration with the goal of reviving millions of hectares of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Visit www.decadeonrestoration.org to learn more.
