WWF-Kenya and The Coca Cola Foundation Partner to Promote Plastic Waste Management in Coastal Kenya

Posted on 18 October 2021

Press Release

News Release

For Immediate Release

WWF-Kenya and The Coca Cola Foundation Partner to Promote Plastic Waste Management in Coastal Kenya

Mombasa, 15th October, 2021. Close to 500 youth and women in the coastal city of Mombasa, Kenya are set to benefit from a Kshs 15 million (USD 150,000) plastic waste management project funded by The Coca-Cola Foundation (TCCF) and implemented by World Wide Fund for Nature-Kenya (WWF-Kenya). The objective of this project is to scale up solutions to combat the increasing problem of plastic pollution in the region. The grant will provide opportunities for capacity enhancement in plastic recycling and essential equipment to the waste reclaimers as a mechanism to improve responsible business conduct and link them to markets for recyclable plastics.

“WWF-Kenya recognizes that it takes a systems approach to combat plastic pollution, city-level waste management, policy interventions and businesses bearing responsibility for the production and end of life of products put to market through the proposed Extended Producer Responsibility Regulations 2021 that will be enacted in Kenya soon. This project is a unique opportunity for developing a business case to stimulate collection and provide tools to businesses to take greater responsibility for the end of life of their products put to market, said Mohamed Awer, Chief Executive Officer, WWF-Kenya.

The Coca-Cola Foundation is proud to work with WWF-Kenya to strengthen recycling efforts locally.” Said Saadia Madsbjerg, President, The Coca-Cola Foundation. “By providing equipment and training to small recyclers, the project seeks to reduce the amount of plastic entering the environment.”

WWF’s global No Plastic in Nature strategy works across the life cycle of plastic to reduce the amount of new plastic produced, increase the reuse of plastic already in circulation and eliminates leakage of plastic into nature. The initiative is built on the three core pillars of global governance, business engagement and plastic smart cities.

WWF-Kenya has been championing a circular plastics economy in Mombasa County with a vision of making Kenya’s second largest city a Plastic Smart City by 2030. According to a 2019 assessment by the UN Habitat and the County Government of Mombasa, the city generates about 900 tonnes of solid waste daily out of which plastic waste comprises 9% (approximately 81 tonnes). Of the plastic waste generated daily, only half is processed for recycling. The rest leaks into the environment, ending up on land and in the ocean. If we are to achieve our ambitious goal of No Plastic in Nature by 2030, we must build our society’s capacity to recycle plastic waste because plastic does not belong in nature despite the complexity of the challenge.

ENDS

About WWF-Kenya

World Wide Fund for Nature-Kenya (WWF-Kenya) is a locally registered non-governmental conservation organization, an affiliate of WWF International. WWF has been working in Kenya since 1962 alongside the government, civil society, private sector organizations and local communities to contribute towards providing an enabling environment for the achievement of sustainable natural resource management.

About The Coca-Cola Foundation
The Coca-Cola Foundation is the global philanthropic arm of The Coca-Cola Company. Since its inception in 1984, the Foundation has awarded more than $1 billion in grants to support sustainable community initiatives around the world. For more information about The Coca- Cola Foundation, please visit https://www.coca-colacompany.com/shared- future/communities/the-coca-cola-foundation

For further information:

Joel Muinde, Content Development Coordinator, WWF-Kenya, email: jmuinde@wwfkenya.org.

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