Environmentalists meet to stem plastic waste

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Environmental activists are meeting in South Africa this week to press governments and businesses to reduce the production of plastic because it is harming the continent’s environment.

The conference, “Towards Zero Plastics to the Seas of Africa,” being held in Gqeberha (formerly Port Elizabeth), South Africa, through Friday, brings together academics and experts on the plastics industry and its effects on the continent, say organizers.

The participants are focusing on the actions needed to stop plastics from ruining Africa’s land and seas, say the organizers, the African Marine Waste Network. The conference follows the United Nations Environmental Assembly’s resolution for the development of a legally binding treaty on plastic waste, by 2024.

Despite a growing recycling industry, plastic waste is piling up in Africa’s landfill sites, clogging stormwater drainage systems and polluting rivers

and oceans.

Africa has an average waste collection rate of 55% but only 4% of it is recycled, according to a report by the UN and the Center for Scientific and Industrial Research in South Africa.

This is way below the African Union’s target for the continent’s cities to recycle at least 50% of their waste, by next year.