"Plastic Menace"

“Plastic Menace”

                                                           Stephen N.M

Plastics… have we entered the climax of plastics age? ….how often do you buy or use plastic products or materials? How often do you come across plastic wastes along the streets, gardens, homes, playgrounds, waterways, culverts? I bet on regular basis.Today, Plastic is part of us. We use plastics in almost all aspects of our lives. Actually, plastic defines the modern phase of market products. But what is plastic anyway? A simple scientific definition of plastic would be; any synthetic or semi-synthetic material that can be remolded to form different objects.

Despite the fact that plastic is not a necessity, it’s one of the most sort element today as man seek to make his life more comfortable and enjoyable. In case you are wondering what am taking about, just think of any luxurious products and whichever comes to your mind first , see whether it’s  made of plastic. You will agree with me,that most luxurious goods today such as T.Vs, home theatres, laptops, flash disks, are all made of plastics.

Though plastic was first discovered in the last century, its usage is at its pick today. Almost every consumer products or least its components are made of plastics. This is more or less driven by the need to replace metals and wood with cheap alternatives that come handy with plastics. Plastics are relatively cheap source of raw material as it’s easily molded to finished products compared to metals and wood. It’s for these reasons that most company use it to process, package, furnish and even transport their products. On a positive side, plastics help reduce extraction of metallic raw materials and felling of trees.

Plastic pollution

As mentioned above, plastic is mainly used to package end users goods particularly processed food, drinks and beverages. As such, shops, supermarket and malls are the major source of consumer good derived plastic waste. Thus, most common plastic waste from such food stores includes polythene bags among other packaging containers.

Arguably, the discovery and development of plastic has made our lives more enjoyable and comfortable, however, their discovery has brought misery and agony to other living organisms particularly marine organisms as waste plastics waste finally end up into the ocean and seas.

Any form of plastic waste deposited on land whether upcountry or at coast eventually find its way into the ocean. This mainly occurs when it rains as such deposited plastics are washed away by surface runoff into waterways which end up draining and discharging the waste into the ocean. Once in the ocean, plastics floats vertically depending on their sizes and are carried by ocean current and waves either to the shore or are concentrated in to saturated areas called gyres. Today, there are five known gyres in the world and some of them are reported to cover huge areas comparable to the size of some countries.

Major threat to fisheries globally

Today, plastic waste is among the major threats to marine life globally. This is because plastics are polymers of synthetic materials and hence non-biodegradable. Once deposited in the environment (land and ocean) they stay   for many decades. And in the course of their cycle, they harm many terrestrial and marine creatures. Though concentrated into gyres, small sized plastics are distributed throughout the oceans and in many cases fisheries and other marine creatures confuse such small plastics for food.

When they feed on them in multiple times, they starve to death. In some situations, plastics nets and strings entangle marine organism hence drowning or injuring them. Also,wounds caused by such materials result in bacterial infection which end up killing the creature.

What next?

Of course we all enjoy the comfort of plastic chairs, tables and more so packaged foodstuffs .But, do we enjoy the misery and agony of other living creatures. I bet not. It’s for this the reason am writing to you hoping to jog your memory and remind you that it crucial to manage plastics responsibly. It’s therefore important to rethink of how we use and dispose off plastic materials. After you enjoy the services of any plastic packaged good or product, it’s your responsibility to carry it home or workplace, do not dispose it carelessly. Actually, it’s such simple things that we tend to ignore that matter. But suppose you were able to trace a particular plastic waste you deposited on the street last month, and you find it in the verge of killing another creature-let’s say a fish, would you be happy? Of course not. So let’s use plastic but dispose it wisely

And by the way, as you all know plastics can be recycled .You can always store empty plastics cans, containers and paper bag for reuse or sale .But one thing for sure ,let’s AVOID disposing  them irresponsibly, let’s end the plastic MENACE.

THE ECO GRANT T-SHIRT FAIR (EGTF)

We bring you the most interesting EGTF!! for apt Environmental management in our local cities, towns and institutions!!
Are you ready for the EGTF??

The EGTF!! is a whistle blower hack to challenges facing our environment today. As the economy keeps growing, consumption patterns keep changing for the 'worse' and this goes inline with the restructuring of lifestyles.
The EGTF!! identified  unprecedented impacts of pollution paused by all forms of waste resulting from the vast changes in consumption and lifestyles.  
EGTF!! is undoubtedly the most powerful approach to put in place for the well being  of our Environment. The EGTF!! approach will redefine and strengthen the 3Rs principles of Reduce,Reuse and Recycle in a more practical manner, resulting in zero tolerance to inappropriate waste management.

As it is of its own kind, the EGTF!! is a great tool for use by all sectors of the economy. It gives a reprieve to the local and national governments, the private and public sectors, institutions and to every individual at large. EGTF!! will serve to complement the efforts put in by our local authorities, municipal councils and other institutions in waging the war against global climate change because it is a  double edged success tool for tacit Environmental management at all levels!

The EGTF!! T-shirts carry the very essential message of advocating for ethical lifestyles and a paradigm shift towards meaningful consumption patterns for the global community and hence, the power to spread the message depends wholly on us!!.

Come on, Grab  your EGTF T-SHIRT TODAY!! 

You can never win for the environment singlehandedly!!
We need you, You need us, Our Environment needs us all!!

Come raise a T-shirt to say:
NO to Dumping,
No to Tire burning,
No to  Improper solid waste disposal,
No to Environmental degradation.

Each T-shirt goes out at a discounted fee of U$D 6.0 Only!!
Hurry and lets save our planet!!
CLICK THE LINK BELOW TO PURCHASE YOUR T-SHIRT NOW!!

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1vGtgBADMRfb8BTKRbEP8HL5KzRhIN6adZEwhQnARIgE/viewform?usp=send_form

IMPORTANT!!

Eco Ethics Kenya is non profit organization working towards building environmentally conscious communities that are in harmony with nature.You can support this EGTF!! by either getting the T-shirt for your self, your colleague, for a street family or both. We are keen to see the message being spread all across the globe towards realizing sustainable approaches to environmental management among communities through research, capacity building and advocacy!!

Mangroves asked me for more power

Mangroves are trees that grow along muddy beaches of our oceans in a thin space called the inter-tidal zone. There are 9 species of mangroves in Kenya covering a total of about 53,000 ha. Lamu county commands the largest share with about 33,500 ha, Kwale (8,800), Kilifi (6,600) and Mombasa (2,200). To survive in this environment, mangroves have evolved special apparatus to tolerate saline water and breathe under ocean water. Mangrove forests are scenic and valuable for recreation and tourism. In cities such as Mombasa, these wonderful forests sink carbon dioxide, diffuse urban heat islands and provide the last line of defense against strong ocean tides and wind to protect urban structures from disasters such as flooding and cyclones. As breeding sites and shelters for marine life, mangrove conservation not only protects the livelihoods of vulnerable groups in urban centers who are solely dependent on fishing, but also protect affordable and nutritious sources of protein for a majority of urban dwellers.


As we move into a future defined by climate change and globalization, mangroves will increasingly provide a solace for biodiversity, coastal livelihoods, tourism, public nutrition and safety. Sadly, this solace remains evasive as Kenya marks a 20% loss of its mangrove cover. Mangroves contend endlessly with ocean pollution, overexploitation, unsustainable mining and aquaculture and poor waste management. Salt mining cleared about 10,000 ha of mangrove in Ngomeni, while an additional 244 ha has been lost to the more than five oil spill accidents in Makupa and Port Reitz creeks. Fuel wood and spoil dumping have each destroyed 100 ha in Karawa (Kwale) and Mokowe (Lamu) respectively. These declines are anticipated to worsen with huge developments such as the Dongo Kundu bypass and the Standard Gauge Railway projects and rapid urban expansions at the coast. Also contributing to this is the overwhelming sewage discharges into the creeks, currently estimated at over 4000 tons of raw sewage per year. The impacts are already showing, for instance coastal erosion has risen to about half a meter a year implying a 10m loss of coastline since 1971. Fishermen have also lamented the declining catch and attribute it to mangrove losses.


The solutions need not to come from replanting or rehabilitating. As we learnt from a community-based group that rehabilitates mangroves in Mkupe (Tudor Creek, Mombasa), the long-term solutions to mangrove conservation require a novel intervention that will circumvent the power struggles that exclude communities from decisions to clear or harvest mangroves. Beach management units are community-based organizations created by the fisheries regulations (2007) and alongside other self-help groups and community forest associations, they are the legal custodians of marine and coastal resources at the grassroots. This law authorizes them to conduct conservation and surveillance of the resource for which they work with passion and serious financial and logistical constraints without any external support to sustain this fading paradise for posterity. Nonetheless, the national agency, Kenya Forest Service authorizes excisions without due ecological and impact assessments and with no regard to the fates of livelihoods of millions. I strongly believe that by building the capacity of these grassroots organizations to assume and exercise legal authority and engage cordially with national and county bodies we may extend the life of mangroves, broaden benefits-sharing and enhance the resilience of our coastal urban ecosystems.


Join us in advocating for community-driven conservation. Call or email us for more information on what we do for mangroves as well as.