Kenya Establishes a Trade Organisation to Promote Packaging Recycling

Posted on : Wednesday, 7th June 2023

A business organisation that will promote the recycling of all non-hazardous packaging materials in Kenya was introduced on Friday.

In order to hasten the recycling of packaging made of plastic, aluminium and glass, Soipan Tuya, cabinet secretary for the Ministry of Environment, Climate Change, and Forestry, told journalists in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, that PAKPRO would give financial subsidies to waste collectors.

"This organization will help to shift our economy from a linear one where resources are taken, products are made and then waste generated is discarded, to a circular one where resources are kept in the value chain through reuse, recycling, waste minimization, leasing repairing and even refurbishing," Tuya stated in a speech read on her behalf by Rodney Omari, senior assistant secretary in the Ministry of Environment, Climate Change and Forestry.

According to Omari, the success of PAKPRO would not only improve the environment but will also help to expand the economy of Kenya by generating jobs.

The backbone of Kenya's recycling industry, waste collectors, he noted, are supported by PAKPRO, which represents importers, manufacturers, distributors and retailers of goods that contain packaging. He lamented that waste collectors work in challenging and subpar working conditions that frequently result in their marginalisation in society.