Hundreds of activists demand plastic action in Kenya

NAIROBI: Hundreds of environmental campaigners marched in the Kenyan capital Nairobi on Saturday demanding drastic curbs on plastic production, ahead of a meeting to negotiate a global plastics treaty.

Representatives from more than 170 nations will meet in Nairobi from Monday to negotiate what concrete measures should be included in a binding worldwide treaty to end plastic pollution.

Marchers called for the talks to focus on cutting the amount of plastic produced and waved placards reading “Plastic crisis = climate crisis” and “End multi-generational toxic exposure”.

They chanted “let polluters pay the price” as they walked slowly behind a ceremonial band from central Nairobi to a park in the west of the capital.

Nations agreed last year to finalise by 2024 a world-first UN treaty to address the scourge of plastics found everywhere from mountain tops and the deepest sea trenches to inside human blood streams.

Negotiators have met twice already but Nairobi is the first opportunity to debate a draft treaty published in September that outlines the many pathways to tackling the plastic problem.

“There is a lot of talk on end of pipe solutions which we do not need right now,” Tiara Samson, an associate from the Break Free From Plastic movement, which organised the Saturday march, said.

“Investing in those solutions divert the focus on what we really need to do which is mandating ambitious targets on plastics reduction,” added the campaigner, who travelled from the Philippines.