In the face of mounting existential threats posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and the climate crisis to the fossil fuel industry, American gas and oil companies are now devising plans to offset potential losses by exporting substantial quantities of plastic waste to Kenya and other African nations.
Back in 2017, Kenya introduced a rigorous ban on plastic bags, earning global recognition as one of the world's most stringent measures to combat plastic pollution. The ban was enacted following a persistent campaign by NGOs and activists who witnessed the environmental destruction and health hazards caused by swarms of plastic waste across the country.
This year, Kenya expanded its ban to encompass additional products, including plastic bottles and straws, within designated areas such as national parks.
In May 2020, Kenya joined over 180 countries in an agreement to heavily restrict the proliferation of plastic under the Basel Convention Plastic Waste Amendment. The amendment makes it extremely difficult for wealthy countries to dump their plastic waste in developing nations.
Now, American oil and gas companies launched a campaign aiming to erode Kenya’s bans on usage and importation of plastic and effectively turn the East African nation into a receptacle of their plastic products and waste.
An investigation by The New York Times has revealed that an industry group called the American Chemistry Council, which represents some of the world’s most prominent chemical manufacturers and fossil fuel companies – including Exxon Mobil, Chevron, and Shell – is lobbying the U.S. government in an attempt to impact Kenya’s trade agreements with the United States and open it up to plastic. According to documents and emails scrutinised by The Times, the oil and gas industry enjoys an alarmingly cosy relationship with U.S. trade officials who align with its agenda and downplay the environmental and public health risks associated with it.
The oil and gas industry’s blitz on Kenya is part of a large-scale endeavour to pivot its operations away from fossil fuel burning, which is doomed to decline as governments and industries transition to renewable energy and centre them around plastic production. According to the American Chemistry Council’s own data, over the past decade, the oil and gas industry has invested over $200 billion in transitioning its operations to plastic production.
But with China shuttering its doors to additional scrap plastic, the Basel Convention severely restricting the dumping of plastic on developing nations, and 127 countries legislating tougher limits on single-use plastic, American oil companies and chemical manufacturers have been scrambling to identify a viable receptacle for their products and trash. In the process, they moved to exploit Kenya’s swelling economic distress induced by the COVID-19 pandemic and its desire to renew a trade deal with the U.S. that is set to expire in 2025 – both of which make the African nation a perfect prey.
Griffins Ochieng, executive director for the Centre for Environmental Justice and Development – a Nairobi-based NGO tackling plastic waste in Kenya – told The New York Times that the industry’s agenda to weaken Kenya’s plastic restrictions would “inevitably mean more plastic and chemicals in the environment.” Speaking with The Times, Jane Patton, a plastics expert at the Center for International Environmental Law, added that the industry’s proposed relaxing of plastic bans would endanger Kenyan democracy by pressuring its leaders to reverse “democratically enacted policies.”
But Kenya itself is merely a gateway for the oil and gas industry, which seeks to turn the entire African continent into a dumping site of plastic products and trash. “We anticipate that Kenya could serve in the future as a hub for supplying U.S.-made chemicals and plastics to other markets in Africa through this trade agreement,” the American Chemistry Council’s director of international trade, Ed Brzytwa, wrote in a letter obtained by The Times to the Office of the United States Trade Representative.
Faced with its looming demise, the petrified gas and oil industry resorts to nothing short of bullying and manipulation in order to delay its inexorable expiration and generate as much profit as possible. By doing so, the industry perpetuates its decades-long tradition of causing irreversible damage to all life on Earth. It is up to us, consumers of plastic and members of the international community, to exert significant public pressure on government officials in order to curb the greed of industry giants and stanch the unbridled flow of plastic production and waste.
At the same time, we ought to recognise our own role in fueling this ongoing crisis, reassess and modify our consumption habits, and actively support initiatives seeking alternatives to current production methods.
Image by Sergei Tokmakov, Esq.