President William Ruto and his newly sworn-in administration has been asked to ban up to 17 separate everyday-use plastic products.
Kenya Plastic Pact (KPP), a platform established to help create a circular economy for plastics in Kenya, published a list of the plastic products it deems unnecessary and should be done away with to save the environment.
According to the organisation, its project, which seeks to phase out the plastic products by 2030, received a boost after an endorsement by the Ministry of Environment and Forestry.
The products include plastic bottles, plastic multi-wrap around cans and tins as well as cartons for multi-sales, PETG and PVC shrink sleeves on PET bottles.
Others are polystyrene (PS) packaging, polyvinyl chloride (PVC) rigid packaging (including bottles), Expanded Polystyrene (EPS), plastic packaging for fast foods, Polyethylene Terephthalate Glycol (PETG) in rigid packaging and secondary plastic cling film on takeaway packaging.
The organisation also sought to phase out non-packaging plastic products such as plastic cutlery, disposable plastic plates and bowls, plastic straws, plastic stirrers, and plastic cotton bud sticks.
KPP further noted that its efforts to improve the environment has been supported by 39 Kenya Plastics Pact business members and supporters.
The organisation hailed former President Uhuru Kenyatta's success in banning the use of plastic carrier bags in 2017.
The ban extended to the plastic bags use, manufacture and sale.
In 2019, the then Head of State also announced a ban on plastic bottles in all protected areas, including National Parks, beaches, forests and conservation areas.
"Today I am announcing another ban on single-use plastics in all our protected areas, including National Parks, beaches, forests and conservation areas effective 5 June, 2020," announced Kenyatta at the time.
Kenya is now reeling from the effects of climate change believed to be brought by following the degradation of the environment.
Over 5.1 million people are on the brink of sliding into famine as the country battles its worst drought in four decades.
The world is estimated to produce over 400 million tonnes of plastics per year with only 10 per cent being recycled.
