Big Oil Companies: Offshoring Plastic to Africa for Profit
- 82newsbulletin
- Sep 10, 2020
- 2 min read
Written by Karrie Lam
An industry group representing the world’s largest chemical makers and fossil fuel companies, including Shell and Exxon, has been lobbying to influence the United States bilateral trade deal with Kenya, pressuring it into reversing its strict ban on the use, manufacturing and import of plastic bags. Ever since China closed its ports to most plastic trash in 2018, exporters have been in search of new dumping grounds. Exports to Africa more than quadrupled in 2019 from a year earlier. Kenya, being one of Africa’s biggest economies, is anticipated to “serve in the future as a hub for supplying U.S.-made chemicals and plastics to other markets in Africa through this trade agreement,” wrote Ed Brzytwa, the director of international trade for the American Chemistry Council.
The oil industry’s motive for the plastic proposal is to find new uses for an oversupply of oil and gas in an era of increasingly affordable renewable energy (i.e wind and solar power) and growing efforts to reduce usage of fossil fuels due to climate change. Coupled with the coronavirus pandemic, profits have been plunging for oil companies. US Democratic Senator Tom Udall pinpoints “double-dealing” of companies as the true source of the current plastic waste crisis, stating “companies and corporations off-shoring their responsibilities to make billions of dollars… Requiring these companies to take responsibility for their excessive waste and pollution is the only way we will tackle our colossal plastic waste problem.”
Despite contributing only 4% to global emissions, Africa is among the most disproportionately affected by climate change. Dorothy Otieno of the Centre for Environmental Justice and Development expressed that the proposals would mean that “Kenya will become a dumping ground for plastics. And not just for Kenya, but all of Africa”.
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