Kwetu yetu participated in a street clean-up organised by the Rising Stars organisation to commemorate World Environment Day 2025.
As an organisation that enhances the capacity of the people on matters related to the environment and sustainable Livelihoods, Kwetu yetu got a chance to share information about plastic pollution, especially the microplastics, to the cleanup participants.
Kenya produces about 966,000 tonnes of plastic waste per year, of which only 6- 10 % is recycled.
About 60% of this waste is single-use plastic, which gets discarded in the streets and ends up being washed into the rivers and oceans in the coastal areas.
Plastics also contaminate other water bodies as well as the soil, especially when they break down into microplastics.
The people of goodwill who had gathered at the stadium after a successful street clean-up were surprised when the kwetu yetu assistant chairperson, Julia Wahome, shared about microplastics being discovered in the blood and other body fluids.
The reality is that we are shooting ourselves in the foot by carelessly discarding the plastic waste into the environment because studies have shown that cases of microplastics in the brain have increased by 50% from previous years.
Microplastics have also been reported in human semen and in the placenta. It is evident that we are literally killing ourselves from the source.
As an organisation, we advocate for everyone, especially in the urban areas where more plastic wastes are produced, to accept the call to segregate the waste, recycle what is recyclable and decompose all the biodegradable waste to enrich our soil.
We also call upon the government and all enforcement agencies to ensure all business premises have a waste management unit before trickling down the same to individual households.
We can win the plastic pollution war only if we come together as people, as a nation and as a globe.
Event link: Rising Stars Environmental Cleanup Drive
