From raw material extraction to production to disposal, plastic pollution has a negative impact on humans.
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Addis Ababa in Ethiopia will host the 2023 African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN) from September 14 to 18. It will be under the theme: “Seize opportunities and strengthen collaboration to address environmental challenges in Africa”. It is a platform to strengthen Africa’s collective engagement in the global environmental agenda, including in the International Negotiating Committee (INC) to develop a legally binding global treaty on plastic.
As a prelude to this conference which will bring together 54 African ministers of the environment, Greenpeace Africa urges member states not to compromise in the negotiations of a treaty which would limit the production of plastic at the source and would maintain in the ground the oil and gas used for the extraction of plastics.
Greenpeace Africa is calling on African governments to put this treaty in place to meaningfully address the plastic pollution crisis communities across Africa are battling.
From raw material extraction to production to disposal, plastic pollution has a negative impact on our human rights. It accelerates social injustice and environmental degradation of ecosystems that are essential to the livelihoods of Africans and reinforces the damages and inequalities generated by the climate crisis.
« We call on the group of African negotiators to call for the urgent adoption of a strong treaty that prioritizes a just transition to sustainable livelihoods for workers and other affected communities along the value chain. plastic. The treaty should support reuse and refill business models, taking into account the interests of waste pickers and Indigenous peoples, while using traditional knowledge said Hellen Kahaso Dena, Head of Communications and Storytelling at Greenpeace Africa.
Specialists agree that plastic pollution is a real problem and its consequences on the environment and on people are as dramatic as they make it a global problem. Millions of tons of plastics are produced each year, most of which are used only once. Unrecycled plastic waste then ends up in lakes, rivers and seas, buried in the ground or cluttering up landfills.
