The drive, launched at Arya boys Secondary School on Friday, will bring together students from up to 20 secondary schools in Nairobi to interactively engage on the importance of reducing plastic bag use, effectively re-using the bags and re-cycling them at the end of their useful life.
Speaking on the critical role of Public Private Partnerships in driving key milestones on preservation of the country’s landscape and wildlife in order to drive economic growth, NEMA Director General Geoffrey Wahugu said that public education on environmental conservation is a mammoth task that calls for agenda setting capacity that the private sector can well support.
“It is imperative that we join efforts to drive environmental education and public awareness, in order to make a notable leap towards accessing our right to a clean and healthy environment,” he said.
“Most of the urban problems we face are caused by poor waste management; majority of the plastic bags that we get after doing our shopping end up in the environment, clogging sewers and drains, polluting soil, posing a danger to marine life and causing death to livestock when inadvertently consumed.”
“This is why we recommend recycling of plastic bags for various purposes, like holding garbage and using recyclable bags when shopping.”
Nakumatt Holdings’ Managing Director Atul Shah said: “We are committed to supporting the government in the continuous process of driving a culture shift towards adoption of activities that will positively impact on the environment such as proper waste disposal and recycling of waste material.”
“Through this campaign, we want to ingrain into our children the attitude that their socio-economic wellbeing and that of every Kenyan is ultimately twined with the environment.”
He said that the country’s environmental resources contribute directly or indirectly to the national economy through revenue generation and wealth creation in productive sectors such as fishing, livestock keeping, water, trade and industry.
The campaign implementation which is also supported by the KAM will see the students develop and implement plans on how to clean up local rivers or dams as well as come up with smart ways on how to recycle waste materials especially plastics.