Waste Plastics and Microplastics in Africa: Negative Impacts and Opportunities

Waste plastics and microplastic pollution are two of the most pressing global issues during the past few decades, since the beginning of plastic mass production either for direct use in packaging and plastic products, or for indirect use for plastic dependent industries. The issue is even more problematic for Africa due to the late catch-up of the industrialization and urbanization boom for most of the African countries, which is usually accompanied with intensive production, consumption, and waste generation of plastics. Moreover, the growing population, cheaper costs of plastic products, and minor importance of Environmental conservation in developing countries in Africa are making it an easy choice to expand in plastic use and wastage. African countries have imported about 172 Mton of polymers and plastics valued between 1990 and 2017, and the per capita consumption of plastic in Africa in 2015 was 16 kg/capita/year. While plastic is very important for populations, inappropriate disposal or treatment of plastic waste can introduce hazardous and toxic materials to our environment and ecosystem like microplastics that usually consists of persistent polymers, and other toxic plastic additives like plasticizers, antioxidants, and stabilizers. Moreover, 79% of plastic waste worldwide is being discharged to landfills or open environments. That’s why mixed plastic waste was listed as hazardous waste in the Basel Convention. Therefore, this paper provides a review of the life cycle of plastics in. Production and importing will be discussed, important usages will also be elaborated, and most importantly plastic waste production and current plastic waste management techniques will be evaluated and highlighted, and drawbacks of current strategies will be addressed. Finally, recommendations about better waste management strategies will be provided.