How children can be involved to end plastic pollution in Kenya

European Union (UN) has commenced a children-driven initiative that seeks to collect plastics across the country. The initiative which incorporates the use of plastics to design puppets to create awareness on the importance of conserving the environment.

According to EU, approximately 400 million tonnes of plastics are dumped in the land and ocean every year with only 9 per cent of it being recycled. Additionally, 80 per cent of the waste in oceans and seas are made up plastics which endangers marine life.

Use of puppets to create awareness

Speaking in Nairobi during the commencement of EU Climate Diplomacy Week, Henriette Geiger, Ambassador of European Union in Kenya said that they are working to help Kenya to achieve its goals of reducing plastic in the country. She adds that involvement of children in the initiative will enable them to grow having the knowledge of environmental conservation.

“We are working hard to reduce plastic and reduce the impact of plastic in the environment. We have learnt that in Kenya a small percentage of waste is being recycled and we are partnering with Kenya to ensure that we recycle it. We also help Kenya to mitigate and adapt to changes in climate,” Geiger said.

She added, “Puppets are made out of recycled materials and by so doing we reduce the plastic in the environment. It’s good to use arts to create awareness on environmental conservation. We have reached out to artists about the same so that we can get the message out. We are using puppets to spread the message.”

In the event were pupils from various schools in Nairobi who received training on how to design puppets using plastics like bottles and papers. Phylemon Odhiambo from Kenya Institute of Puppet Theatre said that it’s important to involve children in climate initiatives. He said they are equipping children with skills to create puppets which communicates the need to conserve environment as well as teaching fellow children to do the same.

“What we basically want to do is to ensure that we remove the plastics from the environment. Children collect them and turns it into communication tools that educate other children and the community. We also use it to inform children on the dangers of plastics. We are preparing them to be responsible people in future in terms of environmental conservation and trying to do justice to environment,” Odhiambo said.

Creation of jobs

Henriette Geiger said that the many countries across the world wants to transition to green economy and Kenya being one of them, she said they’ve agreed to work together not only to for environmental conservation purposes but also creation of jobs for Kenyans.

“The European economy is transiting to green economy and many countries around the world have the same ambition and Kenya is one of them.  We have agreed with Kenya to partner on this and that is very key for us because it not only about the environment but also about creating jobs out of cleaning the environment,” Geiger said.