Plastic pollution is among the most visible and recognisable impacts of poorly managed waste. Increasing urbanisation means that more people are living further from the farms that produce their food, and so there is a growing demand for packaging to make sure food doesn’t perish on its way.
To reduce carbon emissions from transport and reduce costs for consumers, packaging companies have turned to lightweight, flexible plastics for a wide range of products. Once they become waste, however, these low-value plastics pose a particular challenge.
With little or no market value, people who collect materials for recycling have no interest in collecting plastic film and pouches. It is labour-intensive, and with minimal reward. As a consequence, these film plastics can often be found polluting land where they pose a threat to livestock and agricultural soil, clogging drainage channels, sometimes reaching the ocean where they break up into small pieces and are mistaken by sea life for food.
In Guwahati, India, WasteAid is supporting a micro-enterprise that is recovering the value from waste flexible plastics by manufacturing damp course and selling it to the local construction sector. With WasteAid’s support, the business is able to scale up operations, paying a fair price to material collectors and providing safe and dignified jobs for women in the community.
WasteAid is also in a rural district in South Africa, in partnership with the district council. WasteAid is working with waste picker associations to share skills and ideas and develop pilot systems that can bring post-consumer plastics back into the loop.
The ubiquitous plastic bottle is another highly visible and challenging waste stream to manage. As incomes rise, more and more people are buying bottled drinks. However, the lack of PET recycling facilities in lower-income countries means markets remain weak, or in many places, non-existent.
WasteAid’s programme in Cameroon has sought to address this challenge head-on. By working in partnership with a small business in Douala, we have recruited and trained more than 200 recycling champions to collect and sort PET bottles (among other plastics) from the coastal city. Since 2019, we have prevented more than 18 tonnes of PET from reaching the Atlantic Ocean, more than half a million bottles.
