The Climate and Clean Air Coalition funding supported the team drafting the bill, helping to ensure broad stakeholder input and incorporation of international expertise.
Kenya signed the Sustainable Waste Management Act on July XNUMX, establishing a legal and institutional framework for sustainable and effective management of national waste. This achievement was achieved through the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC) funding advisory team drafting a national waste management bill to reduce SLCP from the sector.
CCAC is the spark driving all of this, "said environmental lawyer Erika Rosenthal, who is part of the team hired by the company. CCAC collaborates with Kenya to reduce SLCP in the field of waste management. This CCAC coming in and being able to organize their network connections... is very important. The point-to-point communication within the mainland and the mainland's policy support for the CCAC annual meeting all mean that CCAC Rosenthal played a key role in promoting progress on this bill.
This CCAC has funded a team of consultants from the Clean Air Policy Center (CCAP) and Earth Justice to help build domestic waste management capacity and draft a bill using input from various stakeholders to ensure long-term successful implementation.
Sustainable waste management is crucial in Kenya, as its capital Nairobi has one of the world's largest open-air landfills - the Dandora landfill, which pollutes the city's waterways and air. This garbage dump has created dangerous conditions for thousands of people living near it, as well as for thousands of scavengers responsible for informal management of the garbage dump. It is estimated that only 10% of waste in Kenya is recycled or composted, while the rest is dumped in landfills or collected on the roadside.
All major cities in Africa, as well as many large, open, and uncontrolled garbage dumps around the world, have huge and terrible public health problems - they cause massive air quality and water pollution issues, while releasing methane and melanin. Carbon emissions into the atmosphere, "Rosenthal said.
This CCAC waste management work is the core of the Alliance's efforts to reduce waste emissions of short-term climate pollutants (SLCPs), which are powerful climate forces with longer duration and higher warming potential than carbon dioxide. Methane is one of the most dangerous SLCPs because it has caused 40% of the warming since the Industrial Revolution. It also leads to an increase in tropospheric ozone pollution, causing over one million premature deaths annually. Garbage emissions account for 18% of human methane emissions, making bills like Kenya an extremely important part of maintaining a habitable planet.
Kenya joined CCAC in 2014 to reduce SLCP, improve public health and create sustainable development, while mitigating the impact of short-term warming.
Ensure that the bill is collaborative, including holding multiple meetings with the Cabinet Secretary and senior management of the department, during which the CCAC support team provides them with technical and legal training on waste management laws. As part of this work, they invited an expert from South Africa to share their expertise on the country's own waste management laws.
The team first formulated the national waste policy, which was the first step before drafting the bill. The initial draft of the waste management bill was drafted in 2017 and underwent extensive consultation to solicit opinions from the community and civil society. These public consultations were conducted in six different regions of the country, involving the collection and integration of opinions from civil society groups, independent recyclers, and garbage collector associations.
After the bill was finally finalized, it passed through the House of Commons, Parliament, and Senate, and was finally signed into law by President Uhuru Kenyatta, a process that took a total of six years.
This will be a paradigm shift in the way we manage waste (not just plastic). We are transitioning from linear methods to circular methods, "Chris Kipto, Chief Secretary of the Kenyan Ministry of Environment and Forestry, told KTN News when the bill was first passed through parliament. All along, all of our garbage has not been sorted, but transported before sorting and dumping. We hope to get rid of this mixed form of waste. Waste also has its value
