Colombia

Colombia is increasingly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, facing serious risks such as water scarcity, heightened land instability in the Andean region, and rising coastal flooding. 
The frequency and intensity of extreme weather events are growing, threatening vulnerable communities and jeopardizing the country’s development progress (UNDP, 2022).  

In addition to climate-related risks, Colombia grapples with pressing environmental issues including soil erosion, deforestation, and biodiversity loss—largely driven by unsustainable agricultural practices and illegal logging. Forest cover has diminished significantly in recent years, while reforestation efforts remain limited and fragmented (WWF, 2023).

Colombia is coping with challenges posed by increasing volumes of plastic wastes. Marine litter is adversely affecting the coastal waters and impacting key sectors from tourism to fisheries. Insufficient waste management capacities and practices affect millions of inhabitants whose livelihoods are based on fragile coastal marine areas. Furthermore, there is a larger context of excessive waste generation, knowledge gaps, and ineffective/absent policy and regulatory frameworks. Some highlights include:

• In 2019, around 854,723 tonnes of plastic resins were imported into Colombia. The total production capacity of plastic resins in the country during the same year was 1.6 million tonnes and more than 50% of this local production was exported (Acoplásticos. (2021). “Plásticos en Colombia 2020-2021”).
• The average consumption of plastics was 27.8 kg/capita/year in 2019.53 Government statistics and WWF figures show that in Colombia, the annual average consumption of plastic bags is about 288 units per person. The largest application for plastics in this country is packaging (54% of plastic consumption) and the most consumed plastics are PE, PP, PVC, and PET in this order (Acoplásticos. (2020). “Plásticos en Colombia 2019-2020”).
• A trend has been observed that as the size of the population of a municipality increases, the waste generation per inhabitant also increases57. For example, in municipalities with less than 30 thousand inhabitants the average generation is below 240 kg /capita/year, translating to a plastic waste generation rate of below 31.2 kg/capita/year.

Janet Vivas
INVEMAR
Email Janet Vivas

Katherine Duran
INVEMAR
Email Katherine Duran