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Cases / Plastic waste and recycling claims · Kenya · 2019–2021

American Chemistry Council proposed Kenya as Africa's plastics hub in 2020

Short record: the main facts, with sources. A full case file has not been prepared.

Nature's voice · report
No measurement of the harm done to me here is on record.
Did nature suffer? Not measured.
Not on record
  • The record does not name which of my species, waters, soils or forests were harmed.
What the record lacks: 2 none on record · 2 insufficient · 1 not measured See the gaps

In April 2020 the American Chemistry Council wrote to the US Trade Representative proposing Kenya as a plastics hub for Africa and asking that plastic and waste trade not be restricted. The Basel Convention regulates the movement of hazardous waste between countries, and its 2019 plastic amendments took effect in January 2021.

What?
The American Chemistry Council proposed Kenya as a plastics hub for Africa in an April 2020 letter to the US Trade Representative and asked for no limits on plastic and waste trade.
Where?
Kenya (proposed plastics hub) and the United States (the letter to the US Trade Representative)
When?
Letter dated April 2020; Basel plastic amendments adopted in 2019 and in force from 1 January 2021. Basel Convention
Who?
Gained
  • American Chemistry Council and the US plastics and chemicals industry — Asked the US government to support Kenya as an African plastics hub and to leave plastic and waste trade unrestricted
Lost
None on record
Harmed
None on record
Why?
Not stated in the sources reviewed.
How?
A written proposal to the US Trade Representative; any other lobbying is reported but not verified (see unknown).
6 of 6 questions answered from the record

What happened

The record, in order.

In April 2020 the American Chemistry Council wrote to the US Trade Representative proposing that Kenya become a plastics hub for Africa and asking that plastic and waste trade not be restricted.

The council acknowledged that its letter did not mention Kenya's 2017 plastic bag ban, which the sources describe as the strictest in the world.

Amendments to the Basel Convention on plastic waste were adopted at COP-14 (29 April to 10 May 2019) and took effect on 1 January 2021, adding entries for presumed hazardous and presumed non-hazardous plastic waste.

    In court and with insurers

    Every proceeding and every insurer decision on record.

    Lawsuits and rulings

    No court case on record. No court has ruled on this case.

    Insurers

    No insurer decision on record.

    What we don't know

    Undisclosed, unproven, untried: recorded as data.

    Nature

    • Not measured Harm to nature: The record holds no measurement of harm to nature.

    Record

    • Insufficient Reported but not verified: the council lobbied against Basel Convention changes on the movement of hazardous waste in 2019 and 2020.
    • Insufficient Reported but not verified: the Basel ban amendment, adopted in 1995, took effect 24 years later.
    • None on record The sources reviewed do not say whether the US Trade Representative acted on the letter or whether Kenya agreed to a plastics hub.
    • None on record The sources reviewed do not say who bears the cost of plastic waste imports or of a plastics hub in Kenya.

    Did the harm stop?

    Not stated in the sources reviewed.

    Who paid?

    Not stated in the sources reviewed.

    Sources

    Voices on record: — Company or project— Government and regulators— Courts✓ Press and investigations— Communities and civil society— Researchers

    Press and investigations

    1. Basel Convention plastic amendments
      Basel Convention · 2019

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