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Setting the stage
When it comes to education, the first, first thing we have to look at is educating them so that we can inspire action and behavioral changes in them, not just to teach them about the science of plastic.
JANE
I’m Jane McConnell, and welcome to Imaginize World. Today we need to focus on the future for new generations. What kind of world do we want them to live in and how can we help them build it?
Greetings, everyone. Today I’m with Nirere Sadrach, who is the founder and organizer of End Plastic Now, started in Uganda in 2020. It’s a youth movement whose goal is to end the single-use plastic by corporations. He’s involved in the very original Kollekt village, which serves many purposes he will tell us about. He also talks about the way we should see plastic, not as a thing, but as a material with a lifecycle. That changes everything, as you’ll discover. Let’s go.
Hello, Nirere. I’m really happy to see you, and I would like to say talk face-to-face, almost.
NIRERE
Thank you. Nice to meet you too.
Nirere’s journey in plastics pollution activism
What I’d like to ask you about first is, you’ve done a lot of really interesting things in your career so far, and I wondered if you could share a little bit with us about your journey, where you got to, where you are now with your work in the plastics pollution area, the End Plastics Now? How did you get to that point in your life?
NIRERE
This started during my time at university. I started as a climate-change environmentalist and activist. We started the youth movement by then, and we were very active on ground as students joining other students across the world on the climate strikes every Friday. But during then I was promoting the issue of ending plastic pollution as a campaign, as an individual.
After my university, it was COVID time and I decided to grow the initiative into something that I can do this with more people and I can create more space and I can also create more people like So the idea was born from the interest of me looking for doing this with other people, that we can continue spreading this message and evolve into the action. That’s how we were born, and we are now coming to our third year growing as an organization.
JANE
Congratulations. From the little I know about your organization, it seems like it’s growing and doing a lot of good.
NIRERE
We are trying.
JANE
I’m curious about… Somewhere in the things I read about you, you talked about the science of plastic. I think most people, including myself, don’t know much about plastic. What do we need to know about plastic?
Plastic: a material with a life cycle
There is a lot we need to know about plastic, and it is very important that as individuals, as policymakers, governments, corporations, business, community, everybody needs to understand this. First, for you to understand this, we need to stop seeing plastic as an item. We need to look at it as a material. This is where actually we will unlock its proper management. But the moment we see plastics as items, as just things there for use and dispose, that is where we go wrong with the science of understanding it.
But if we start viewing plastic as a material, that way we will be able to address its entire, full lifecycle. Plastic doesn’t start as the item you see finished there. No. Plastic is oil. That, people don’t know. There’s so much science around the so-called item you get. From its extraction, to production, to its disposal, plastic contributes to a lot of different environmental events.
We need to start looking at plastic in its entire lifecycle and address plastic as a material. That way we can even be able to unlock this value embedded in this plastic, in case we recover it as a material and reenter it back into the economy, not just as items that we feel shouldn’t be in the environment, we need to recover them and then recycle them and then… You know, No.
We need to start looking at plastic as a material in its form and address it in its entirety. Most of plastic, almost 99%, is made of fossil fuels extracted from the so-called gases and the oils of this one. So, oil industry and the petrochemical industry are the first industries you have to look at if you have to understand the making of this material.
Then you come to the polluters themselves. Coca-Cola does not make the resin that makes the bottle. But it buys the resin from whoever makes it, so that it can make a PET bottle, it can make a high-density plastic bottle, it can make it harder, it can make all the materials other companies that we normally focus on make.
But from the start of the plastic problem chain are the oil industry, and then we come the petrochemical industries, and then we come to the” bottelize” and all these people that are using it as packaging, that are using it to deliver their products. And then it comes to us, the consumers, and then how we handle it, and then now it’s the environment. So, it’s very important to view this so-called item as a material. That’s the first science of this plastic.
Plastic is harmful to the human body
Number two, we are looking at its harm. People don’t understand the extent of harm plastic causes, not only to the environment but to the human body in its nature. Plastic has been found to have reached so much that it is in our blood, it is going through our veins, we are consuming it through the foods we eat, through the drinks we take, through the water we consume, so it’s almost everywhere. People have to unlock this knowledge. People have to understand what is happening. This science is there and it is proved right and it is happening right now.
I will give you more examples of what’s happening in my local communities around in my country. We have rivers, like river Mpanga, which is flowing with plastic. On the end of the river, where the plastic actually is almost gathering, forming that sludge as it is trying to mix up with the water, cows are drinking, goats are drinking, people are fetching water for domestic use at home. What are they taking, embedded in this water? Microplastics. Because plastic doesn’t decompose, it breaks down to form smaller particles.
The science of plastic going in the environment has been spread so fast. I mean so, that I don’t have to say so much about this. Plastic is in our rivers, plastic is in our lakes, plastic is almost everywhere a little, almost everywhere in our environment. That science, it’s visible to everybody that plastic waste actually, and waste in general, has created the world’s biggest visible problem that human beings have contributed to. And we cannot deny that as human beings, so we have to make sure that we address this science and also what people can do.
JANE
We’ll go into more detail about what people can do, but what you described, “plastic as a material”, is a completely different way of seeing plastic. Can you get that message across to big corporations? Do they understand that?
Brand audits as proof to corporations
We are trying to, first of all, focus them to more underlying issues of plastic waste, such that they can focus more on the science and they can themselves contribute the data that we can use to hold them accountable as we continue doing our brand audits. Together with other organizations across the whole world that are under the umbrella of the global Break Free From Plastic movement, we do what we call brand audits.
JANE
Could you explain a brand audit, what it is, and how it works?
NIRERE
Yes. A little bit about its methodology is that we gather, ourselves, whether youth groups or other organizations join us, we choose a community. We go into this community, we collect the waste, and bring all the waste and we lay down and we start noting down each brand on each item that has been collected in this waste. So we do not just create this data, we get it from our own communities.
Then we write down this data and we start studying this data to identify who is the biggest polluter and all the other companies that contributed to the waste we have found polluted in our environment. It’s through this approach we are approaching these corporations and showing them that, hey, what you’re doing here is wrong. Look at this. We are finding your brands, we are finding your products contributing to a mess in our environment, and this is what you should be doing.
Break Free From Plastic global movement
Another way we are looking at is that we have gone further to start calculating their contributions, how far their contributions to destroying the environment are. An example I’ll give you: We have released the data through the Break Free From Plastic global movement. There is data on how much Coca-Cola produced in a certain year. And what is the equivalent of the amount it has produced to maybe greenhouse gas emission? If you produce much of this plastic, you are emitting much of this greenhouse gas emissions.
Because we have realized that plastic, I have mentioned before, that from its extraction to its disposal, all that chain contributes directly to climate change. Companies are focusing on litter, are focusing on keep your country clean, are focusing on greenwashing their image, trying to claim that they contribute so much the environment, yet they are contributing to destroying the environment.
The circular economy must go all the way
What about the circular economy? Companies talk about that, and people talk about this circular economy as a means of justifying producing plastic among other things. Does that make sense to you?
NIRERE
Circular economy, yes, makes sense. If we can have a circular economy designed where these items don’t get out of the loop. The only challenge we have is that most of the current circular economy model is, at one point the item gets out of the loop and it has to be discarded because it can’t make more rounds through to serve its purpose.
For us here, what we are doing and the part of what we are implementing in local communities is the zero waste economy or the zero waste model. With zero waste, here you have the community playing part of recovering the material right at homestead, at home level, whereby people are practicing waste segregation. The problem is not that the product can’t be circular. The problem is poor waste management is what we have realized in the local communities.
If we can address whereby products are being bought, consumed and they are neatly segregated away from being mixed with other waste, and then also the organic waste is being segregated and separated from the plastic waste, there we can have a full functional circular economy. But the circular economy cannot function if we neglect having homes, having communities, having the local people, the local consumer practice waste segregation. Then we are doomed to have a problem.
Kollekt Village: model for local waste management and education
Because the challenge we are facing right now is poor waste management across the entire chain of the waste you get, so it has to be that people have to practice segregating this waste and separating it. Then it can be collected safely, and then it can be sorted to be offered further functionality and entered back into the economy through other processes.
JANE
Is that part of what Kollekt village is designed to do?
NIRERE
Yes. What we are doing is that with our partners, the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives and the Break Free From Plastic movement, we are getting support to develop this zero waste model, like I have told you. An idea came to us that we should build a material recovery facility for these materials that will be recovered from the communities around the facility.
Also, we wanted to construct this place to act as our home, as an organization, but also offer a center for learning for the community. We have a space where people can come and we teach them about this zero waste model, and they can go back and they practice. Soon we are going to be hosting schools, researchers, journalists and people that are looking at covering local stories and how waste management at local level can unlock community to thrive. Because with this model, we are creating jobs, we are enabling people to earn an income through the waste that they recover, so the facility is here to help the community grow but also act as a center for operating and also for implementing our zero waste model.
And we welcome everybody. This is going to be our home. We will shift this office to the same space. We are going to have a resource center. It’s going to be a fun-packed place. We’re welcoming everybody to come and learn, but also look at a real, a practical demonstration of what waste management practically means and what zero waste in practical is.
JANE
You’re making it real for people, by creating this, what you call, the Kollekt village. The idea is, you’re bringing the problem and the solution right to the local community. I think that’s very interesting.
Plastic toys, children’s health, extensive corporate wrong-doing
Something I learned in reading about your work is you talk about toys. I had never ever thought about toys being such a problem for plastic pollution. And when I think of all the plastic toys I bought my kid when he was young…
NIRERE
Yes. Very, very big problem globally, and now locally it is starting to increase. Globally, we have seen that there is production of a lot of items on special days like Christmas. We will have balloons, we have toys, we have gifts. These days have also spread the culture even to our local communities now. But now it has gone beyond the special days that maybe a kid has to be bought a special gift or a toy or a doll on a Christmas, it is now almost every day kids are getting these toys.
We have food companies in Uganda that are now packaging their food items and are including plastic toys as gifts if kids consume these products. Which is a big problem. This started, I think also with big brands, like Kellogg’s, that are mainly from UK, which are making cornflakes. They were putting these movie characters in their cornflakes. I think you have seen that where you are also in these boxes of cornflakes, milkshakes and all that.
This thing is spreading even to our communities. These products are so cheap. To make it worse, they are packaged in plastic sachets. Do you know sachets? These single-use sachets, like a small… You just tear, use the product and then you dump the sachet. These sachets are becoming a problem.
On one side, the company is putting one sachet the eatables and another sachet comes with a gift, so you have two sachets, with a gift made of plastic also. And inside, the gift is wrapped in a plastic bag. Imagine. So, we have a triple threat. We have the sachet, we have the plastic, we have the plastic bag. And then maybe the kid will buy a lot and then they’ll put in a plastic bag again.
These items are very important to focus on. Our kids are eating these plastic toys. We have found the plastic toys where kids have been putting them in their teeth. They have been a bit rubbed on, and it can be visibly seen that someone was trying to chew on this item. If kids continue chewing on these plastic items, they are getting sick with this plastic because they ingest those microparticles that they scratch off these items.
Waste colonialism: fast fashion, secondhand clothes
Another problem I discovered, which I had heard about already, was secondhand clothes. You said there’s a big secondhand clothes market in Uganda and in other countries, where clothes come from the Global North as such and then they’re exported into other countries where they are sold or perhaps they are also reworked. And again, that’s a fast fashion with a cloth that is not cloth, it’s not linen, it’s not cotton, it’s synthetic, and so we get back to plastic again. Isn’t that right?
NIRERE
Yes. Here the problem, number one, is waste colonialism. And we should be able to highlight this issue. Waste colonialism is whereby we have one country exporting its waste to another country. We have practices of big, developed countries in the Europe, the UK, the so-called giants of this world in the Global North ramping up their waste, because they cannot use these clothes anymore. You can’t put it on anymore.
You bought it. It’s fast fashion when it is in the UK. It is secondhand fashion or secondhand clothes when it is shipped to Africa. If you buy it, it is fast fashion. [inaudible 00:21 :43] fast fashion, fast dumped, of course. Because you put it on, once you feel there’s another trend coming in, you dump that. These countries have been caught with a tendency of bundling up this waste and shipping it to African countries. That is the number one issue we have to address.
This waste, number two, is coming through our [inaudible 00:22 :12] borders in the form of products, in the form of clothing, in the form of something to trade. There is a business that is happening, which is labeled the cheap business. People are so poor in Africa. No, no, no. We have to give them some cheap things to put on. Do you want them to move naked? No. So therefore, we have to give them some cheap clothing so that they can put on.
So, then we have these charity organizations that are collecting in huge numbers, are buying in huge numbers, these secondhand clothes and are donating these secondhand clothes in very many huge numbers. And then we have local traders that are dealing in these clothes, selling them very cheaply that you can almost buy a clothes every day. That’s the problem.
We have to address it from the environmental approach, not from the trade or business approach. That is where we need to focus, yes.
Role of education
Now speaking about where we need to focus, this is a question I ask all my guests: What can the educational system do? How should educational situations be different for children, for adults, university students? But starting with very young kids, the educational institutions need to be educating people about what you are talking about. I don’t know about in Uganda, but to my knowledge it’s not happening very much in Europe or in North America.
NIRERE
When it comes to education, and mostly when you talk about young people, the first, first thing we have to look at is educating them so that we can inspire action and behavioral changes in them, not just to teach them about the science of plastic, how it is made, how it is a big economy, because they may even end up becoming trained [inaudible 00:24 :25]. We have to make sure that we trigger these same people into the right direction. People need to be taught to learn about lifestyle adaptation, lifestyle changes as people. But also, people need to understand the best ways of consuming the so-called brands that they love, so that we can see that we have a behavioral change right from childhood to adulthood.
Two: People need, like I said, to be pushed into inspiring them to take action. People need to be shown what to do, because there is so much plastic, so much plastic for everything. People don’t know what to do, so we need to show them what to do. If we get to learn on knowledges, if we get to learn on models, if we get to learn on strategies like the zero waste strategies, that can be implemented in our communities to address issues like plastic pollution, issues of increased pollution, how can people deal with it.
Because we are practicing poor waste management systems, we need to change our waste management systems and deal with our waste. We need to address issues of waste colonialism. Every country, even if it is in the Global North, all countries should make sure they take responsibility of how they produce, how they consume, and how they dispose of their waste. It shouldn’t be another country’s problem. You get?
JANE
Yeah.
NIRERE
There is a lot we have to deal with if we are to educate our people. Because these people are the ones who become leaders, and the leaders are the ones who become policy makers. We have to make sure that we are triggering action and knowledge that can inspire action, and people can change and can practice a life free from plastic.
JANE
Do you feel optimistic about the future? I don’t know the future at how many years, I don’t know. But do you, in general? You must have a feeling of optimism, given the fact that you dedicate so much of your energy to End Plastic Now. You must feel optimistic that you can reach a situation that’s better than it is today.
Optimism perhaps, Global Plastics Treaty
Like I said, if we implement the right strategies to deal with the item. We are now looking at issues like the Global Plastics Treaty. If this treaty is coming up and it can unlock holding governments, corporations accountable, we can have a systemic chain. Down to our communities we should be able to implement practices that have communities involved, have groups, like waste pickers, involved. There is much we can do if we are going to see something better than what we are looking at right now.
Yes, I am optimistic we can unlock jobs, bring jobs with dealing with our waste, because the waste sector in its capacity has a lot of potential to grow economies. If we can recover these materials in their best form, without us mixing them and there being any landfills, which landfills are also a huge cost to manage, there is hope if we implement the right practices. Yes, I’m looking at such a future.
JANE
Do you have any last point that you would like to make, any last idea you’d like to share with our viewers and listeners?
“This is the time”, action now
I think is I want to appreciate Jane, you, for giving me this platform, first of all. But also since this platform is a global platform, I want to use it as an opportunity to send a message to our leaders out there. Be it political, be it business leaders, be it our local leaders, but everybody that is in a position to shift change, this is the time for the right policies, this is the time for us to have stronger instruments that can hold governments, corporations accountable. This is the time where we should be investing in implementing the right solutions, the time for implementing in reuse options, refill alternatives. This is the time we should be empowering our young people to innovate, to solve the problems that our communities are facing. This is the time that everybody should be taking action.
Thank you.
JANE
That’s fantastic, what you just said. I feel like I’ve always been struck since I discovered your organization by the title of End Plastics Now. The fact that “now” is part of the title, I think that’s a very strong part of the message that you just now communicated. Thank you very much.
You have an incredible energy and enthusiasm that really comes across well, and I think that’s powerful. I think people who listen to the podcast or who view it on YouTube, your messages will come across very strongly. Thank you very much.
NIRERE
Appreciate, Jane. Thank you very much. Appreciate you for your platform.
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