Global initiative “50 by 2050”

Subject : Environment

Section: Environment International conventions

Context: COP27: Global initiative “50 by 2050” targets waste colonialism in fight against Africa pollution.

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Egyptian government is launching a global waste initiative dubbed “50 by 2050” that aims to ensure at least half of all African waste is treated and recycled before 2050.
Announced at the COP27 climate summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, proponents say the ambitious targets could reduce the “waste colonialism” plaguing African countries.
Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA) held a press conference with Friends of the Earth Nigeria to provide civil society’s perspective on the goals.
A UK-based startup, based at Imperial College in London, claims to have developed a technology that could alter the state of plastics and make them biodegradable. The company calls the process “biotransformation”. It claims the technology would digest the plastic packaging waste naturally with the help of microbes and biodegrade the waste without leaving behind any microplastics.

Decolonizing packaging waste

According to Niven Reddy, regional coordinator for GAIA Africa Waste, pollution and the environmental and human health harms it creates are not only generated in Africa.
Large amounts of waste are created through non-recyclable packaging coming from companies in the global north. They produce materials that cannot be recycled in places lacking the necessary waste management infrastructure.
Global leaders can support Africa by bringing an end to waste colonialism, both by creating policies to reduce single-use plastic marketed in the global south and preventing the transfer trade of waste from the global north to the south.
Legal waste exportation also opens the doors for illicit waste trafficking. Handlers can smuggle illegal forms of toxic waste inside authorized shipping containers. The European Anti-Fraud Office estimates illegal waste trafficking to be worth over US$10 billion annually – more than the human trafficking trade.

Tackling African waste

Achieving the goals of 2050 can be done by recognizing that we need to embrace the different starting points of each country in Africa and that improving recycling rates must be centered around waste picker integration.
Many workers throughout the continent rely on informal waste collection labor to survive. This job market should be protected and improved before novel solutions like advanced recycling and incineration projects.
The initiative must focus on job-generating and inclusive solutions, discarding industry-led initiatives like incineration and chemical recycling and ensuring that waste pickers and waste cooperatives are formative parts of the models to be adopted.