Tackling Plastic Litter on Lamu Beaches
Plastic litter covering beaches is a real problem in Lamu. Not only is it off-putting to tourism, but plastic litter harms health and all marine life.
LEF is all too aware of the problem of plastic pollution so we donated a plastic baler machine to the residents group in Shella which means that plastic bottles and containers collected from the beaches each day can be crushed and baled in small volumes and then transported by tractor or camel to the Flipfloppi site where they process this into plastic pellets which form recycled plastic equipment which is either used locally or exported to Mombasa and Nairobi.
Of course, this doesn’t deal with the root of the problem: we need a global ban on plastic bottles and containers, especially single-use plastic. That requires concerted government action (the government of Kenya banned plastic bags, now please ban single-use plastic drink bottles) and all of us should ask hotels, the houses we stay in in Lamu, and restaurants to provide drinking water from glass bottles or install water dispensers from which people can fill their own bottles.
We are doing our part – please do yours – no single-use plastic bottles and please fund LEF to do more work on tackling plastic pollution. Donate here.
