Waste colonialism refers to the disposal of hazardous waste by high GDP countries into low GDP countries. The term was first recorded in 1989 at the United Nations Environmental Basel Convention when African nations raised concerns over the issue.

Apart from hazardous waste, high GDP countries have also been exporting their plastic and paper waste to poorer countries in a bid to cut down on their carbon emissions from incineration of the waste. These poor countries often lack effective waste management systems.

Until January 2018, about half of the world’s plastics and paper products were being dumped and recycled in China. However, in a bid to protect its environmental interests and the health of its populace, China banned imports of plastics and paper. This ban was also propelled by the mixing of hazardous wastes in the solid waste imported by China.

This left countries in the West struggling with the build-up of plastic and paper waste, as they scrambled to look for new markets for the waste. In 2020, a huge consignment of 141 containers filled with plastic waste being exported to Turkey from Germany was rejected by authorities as they had just banned the importation of mixed plastic waste.

The problem

High GDP countries are the world’s largest producers of waste yet some of them are labelled as the world’s top recyclers. In 2017, Germany was named the world’s top recycler by the World Economic Forum. However, according to 2021 data from Statista, Germany was the leading exporter of plastic waste in the European Union.

Companies in the fossil fuel industry also continue to lobby for more plastic manufacturing and have set their eyes on Africa as the next market. During the US-Kenya trade negotiations in 2020, the American Chemistry Council – an industry group representing the world’s largest petrochemical companies, proposed Kenya as a future supply hub for US-made chemicals and plastics to other African countries.

If this deal had come to fruition, Kenya would have imported up to 500 million tonnes of plastic waste per year from the US. However, Kenya has neither the recycling capacity nor the storage capacity for this waste. Not only would this have led to more plastic waste in landfills, but Kenya would have had to lift one of the world’s strictest ban on single-use plastics.

High GPD countries generate twice as much waste per capita in comparison to low GDP countries. Lower-income countries already face challenges with their own solid waste and when higher-income countries export their solid waste, they are only exacerbating the global environmental risks brought on by plastic waste.

Who is fighting back and how?

In Asia, a historic leap against waste colonialism was made in 2022 when the US-based organization Ocean Conservancy (OC), retracted its 2015 report that blamed the global plastic waste problem on the continent. This was due to the fact that the report ignored the role played by countries in North America and Europe in plastic waste production. In addition, the report also proposed garbage incineration as a solution which led to years of greenhouse gas emissions.

To make up for its past actions, the OC has partnered with the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA) to begin a community- and sector-based restorative process. The restorative process prioritizes on plastic reduction policies.

In Africa, the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA) and the Break Free from Plastic (BFFP) Africa continue to create awareness on the impact of waste colonialism. During Africa Day 2022, the two organizations together with 69 individuals and 136 organizations released a public statement calling on African leaders to stop waste colonialism in Africa.

What more can be done?

The GAIA + BFFP Africa public statement made some recommendations to what can be done in the fight against waste colonialism. Although these recommendations were made to African governments, they are applicable to all developing nations. The recommendations are:

• Prevention of plastic waste dumping
• Protection of existing and new legislation upholding right to a safe, clean and healthy, toxic-free environment
• Exercising their right to refuse shipments of hazardous and plastic waste as provided by the Prior Informed Consent (PIC) Procedure and Information Exchange of the UNEP + Rotterdam Convention
• Enforcing existing legislations that restrict and prohibit waste imports like the Basel and Bamako conventions
• Adoption of national systems that are inclusive of waste pickers in waste management decision-making processes
• Investing in ongoing discussions around global plastic treaty at the local and regional levels to address problems in the entire plastic value chain

What do you think of waste colonialism, let us know in the comment section.