The science of plastics and how to make the world healthier
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, and this is where we actually, we will unlock its management or 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.
Plastic: a material with a life cycle
But if we start viewing plastic as a material, that way we will be able to address its entire full life cycle. Plastic doesn’t start as the item you see finished there. No. Plastic is oil. That, people don’t know. So, there’s so much science around this so-called item you get. So, from its extraction to production to its disposal, plastic contributes to a lot of different environmental events.
Microplastics in people’s lives
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, and on the end of the river where the plastic actually is almost gathering and 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 decomposes, it breaks down to form smaller particles.
The science of plastic going in the environment has been spread so fast. I mean, so I don’t have to say so much about this. Plastic is in our rivers, plastic is in our lakes, plastic is almost everywhere, littered almost everywhere in our environment. So, that science only people, 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.
Brand audits bring transparency
Could you explain how a brand audit … What it is and how it works?
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 telling 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.
So, 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.” Another way we are looking at is that we have gone further to start calculating their contributions, how far that their contributions to destroying the environment are.
The circular economy falls short
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.
Kollekt Village, model for waste management and education
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 a 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.
Waste colonialism
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. So, 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 second-hand fashion or second-hand clothes when it is shipped to Africa. So, if you buy it as fast fashion, but remember if it’s fast bought, fast fashion, fast dumped, of course, because you put it on, once you feel like 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.
Shipping the problem to the Global South
There is sort of a business that is happening, which is labeled the cheap business. People are so poor in Africa. No, no, 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 clothes, 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 second-hand clothes and are donating these second-hand 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 clothe every day. That’s the problem. And we have to address it from the environmental approach, not from the trade or business approach.
Taking action locally
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.
Yeah.
Now is the time to act!
I want to appreciate, Jane, 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 they are out there, be it political, be it business leaders, be it our local leaders. But everybody that is in a position to shift change, that 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.
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