In October 2021, Kenya’s government launched the new Kenya Plastics Pact which includes efforts to dramatically increase plastic recycling rates and also eliminate unnecessary single-use plastic packaging items through redesign, innovation and reuse.
This makes Kenya the second country in Africa (after South Africa) and the 12th globally to launch a plastics pact whose overarching goal is to stimulate the growth of the circular economy by recycling non-biodegradable waste.
The Kenya Plastics Pact (KPP) is led by Sustainable Inclusive Business (SIB-K), the Nairobi-based knowledge centre under the Kenya Private Sector Alliance. It draws support from the UK-based environmental group WRAP, the MAVA Foundation, UK Research and Innovation, and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.
Josephine Wawira, the Communications Expert for SIB-K, describes the KPP as a very structured voluntary initiative that brings together stakeholders across the plastics value chain to transform the current linear plastics system into a circular economy for plastics.
