Retailers need to make customers more aware of plastic pollution

Like many countries, Kenya faces a daunting challenge – plastic pollution.

According to the United Nations Environment Programme’s Sustainable Manufacturing and Environmental Pollution Programme, the country generates more than 9.66 million tonnes of plastic waste every year.

As a result, up to 37 kilotons of nuclear waste has seeped into our environment and oceans, harming wildlife, contaminating our ecosystems, and posing a threat to human health.

To combat this problem, the government, through the National Environment Management Authority (Nema), took the progressive step of banning single-use shopping bags across the country in 2017.

Since then, Kenyan retailers have taken significant steps to eliminate single-use plastic bags from their stores, with supermarkets in Kenya using an estimated 100 million single-use plastic bags each year, according to Nema.

As of 2021, Nema says the single-use plastic ban has achieved a 95% compliance rate, a clear demonstration of the industry and government’s commitment to promoting sustainable practices. While the ban has encouraged retailers and companies to adopt more sustainable options, it is clear that plastic pollution remains a challenge for the country.

Reusable and recyclable shopping bags are not optimally reused and recycled. Low recycling rates undermine the benefits of single-use plastic bans.

The OECD’s Global Plastics Outlook estimates that only 9% of plastic waste worldwide is recycled.

Locally, according to the USAID Unlocking the Plastic Value Chain project, Kenya recycles only 7% of plastic, and an estimated 92% is mismanaged. In the retail sector, a key challenge in achieving a circular economy for plastic shopping bags is effectively encouraging customers to return old bags for recycling. While many customers promote sustainability, only a minority recycle.

Involving end-users in recycling is essential to combating plastic pollution. All relevant stakeholders must work together so that everyone not only adopts a sustainable lifestyle but also responsibly recycles 100% of plastic waste.

While customers play a key role, retailers need to encourage this behavioural shift by offering more sustainable options. For example, Carrefour’s “Lifetime Free Replacement Bag” scheme allows customers to exchange their old, worn-out reusable shopping bags for new ones free of charge.

This move not only promotes environmental protection, but also helps save costs for customers.

As we celebrate Plastic Free July, we as retailers have a shared responsibility to take initiatives that encourage customers to change attitudes and adopt more sustainable shopping behaviours, reduce plastic consumption and promote a circular economy.

Consumers, for their part, need to make earth-friendly choices and avoid harming the environment by reusing and recycling shopping bags and other plastics.