Success Factors for Extended Producer Responsibility Scheme in Kenya

Authors:? Alex Kubasu & Théo Venturelli

To fight its waste problem, Kenya has drafted an Extended Producer Responsibility regulation that will target packaging for non-hazardous products and hazardous products, E-waste, end-of-life vehicles, non-packaging items (plastics, glass, paper, cardboard), furniture (except wooden, metallic), rubber and tires. To build on the positive momentum, Kenya needs to consider certain factors during implementation to guarantee the success of the EPR scheme.?

Like many other countries, Kenya has a deep-seated plastic pollution problem. According to UN-Habitat, the greater Nairobi area generates about 3,207 tons of waste per day, 20 percent of which is plastic. Plastic production is increasing and a large part of this plastic is polluting its terrestrial and marine environment. In the coastal city of Mombasa, the second largest city in the country, 3.7 kg per capita of plastic leaks into water bodies every year. This leads to the degradation of its environment and to health hazards.?

Efforts by the Government of Kenya

To tackle this problem, the Kenyan Government implemented one of the strictest bans on single-use plastic bags in 2017. The ban entailed a complete prohibition on the manufacture, importation, sale, and use of all plastic bags that are less than 60 microns thick. It aimed at reducing the amount of plastic waste in the country and its negative impact on the environment, wildlife, and human health. Penalties for violating the ban included hefty fines and imprisonment. The ban is still in effect alongside a number of other key initiatives among them being the recent enactment of the?Sustainable Waste Management Act of 2022 . This act states that the “Cabinet Secretary shall, within two years of the coming into operation of this Act make regulations on extended producer responsibility”.?Regardless of these initiatives, experts opine there is still more to be done to ensure no plastics in nature.?

The concept of EPR

Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) is a solution that has been adopted by many countries to better manage waste and reduce its impact. This approach requires manufacturers to take full responsibility for the end of life of their products that fall under the EPR scheme. Companies form a coalition under the institution known as a Producer Responsibility Organization (PRO). Each member is then required to contribute fees to the PRO based on the amount and type of waste they produce for their proper management. The implementation of more than 400 EPR schemes across the world has demonstrated effectiveness in managing waste. Importantly, EPR schemes advance efforts to meet policy goals in both upstream areas, such as the design and elimination of unnecessary plastics, and downstream areas, such as improved recycling and collection.

Kenya is tapping into the frontier territory, going by its most recent proposed Extended Producer Responsibility Regulation 2020. The proposed regulation is arguably the most ambitious EPR scheme in the world with an initial total of nineteen products under the mandatory EPR scheme organized under five categories. They include non-hazardous packaging materials such as plastics, aluminum, paper, glass, and cardboard and packaging products that carry hazardous materials such as industrial chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and cosmetics. Additionally, the regulations apply to electrical and electronic equipment, batteries, and end-of-life vehicles like automobiles and aircraft. The regulations also extend to non-packaging items such as furniture, rubber and tires, textiles, and diapers.?

The EPR regulation received a boost following the passage of its parent law, the Sustainable Waste Management Act 2022, which was signed into law in July 2022. The EPR regulation is currently in the final stages of the enactment process before it becomes operational.

Important levers to make enhance EPR implementation

For this EPR legislation to be effective, there are some specific aspects it needs to take into account. The creators of the EPR plan were wisely advised to make it mandatory. It is commendable that there is growing support for the plan from a variety of stakeholders, including the private sector. However, it is important that a nationwide effort is made to ensure no company is left behind once the plan is enacted. To avoid the issue of free riders, this article suggests a collaboration between different government agencies, led by the National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA), including the tax department, the Kenya Bureaus of Standards and Statistics, and all relevant trade authorities responsible for business registration and license renewal. Any manufacturer who wants to access these government services must provide proof of their EPR membership based on the products they sell. This will guarantee maximum compliance.

Secondly, a foolproof register that is accessible is a necessity. Other than just the inclusion of all manufacturers, the register can be an important tool that tracks and measures the binding targets on collection, recycling, and most importantly product redesign to foster circularity in the production of all products under the EPR scheme.?

Since the EPR scheme as currently drafted is heavily private sector-led, we argue that there should be minimum interference and maximum cooperation between the PRO and the Government entities, especially the county governments that are responsible for waste management. In the same breath, transparency with regard to all member contributions by the respective PROs cannot be over-emphasized.?

Kenya has a large informal sector involved in the collection and valorization of waste. With the looming transition to fully fledged material recovery facilities (MRFs) operated by county governments and PROs, stakeholders urgently need to start developing a just transition plan to ensure the informal sector players are accommodated in these grand plans and that they do not get disenfranchised. With proper coordination and planning, the government can spearhead efforts towards ensuring stakeholders involved have the right technical skills. Moreover, vocational education institutes can start offering courses to the informal sector players in order to tap into their skills honed over the years on the identification and sorting of the various recyclable fractions. These trained workers can then be deployed to work in the proposed MRFs if they are interested in getting formalized.?

The Kenya Plastics Pact, a voluntary multi-stakeholder platform that gathers actors from the plastic value chain to support a circular plastic economy in Kenya, can be leveraged to enhance the ambition of the EPR scheme. So far, the sixteen products earmarked as unnecessary and problematic through a rigorous process can be a good starting point for PROs to eco-modulate the fees for these products. Essentially, the KPP is poised to play an important role as a lab for providing innovative solutions that can then be adopted by the producers to accelerate the transition to a circular economy in Kenya.?

In conclusion, even though the creation of an EPR scheme is a good step forward for Kenya, it will not be enough to solve all the waste problems that the country is facing without direct interventions by the government during the initial stages in addition to a paradigm shift in behavior by all Kenyans in how they view and handle the waste. Other tools needed to supplement EPR in Kenya include the deposit and return schemes (DRS), as well as embracing re-use models. Furthermore, since the EPR does not apply outside of the country's borders, it needs to be extended initially under the auspices of the East African Community and hopefully throughout the continent of Africa.?