In the fight against plastic pollution, the region is turning to bold legislation and innovative business models to make reuse and recycling scalable, sustainable, and profitable.
By Philip Mwangangi
The sun rises over Rwanda’s lush, meticulously cared-for landscapes, casting a golden glow on streets that seem almost untouched by waste. For many visitors, the first sign they’ve arrived in Kigali isn’t the warm greeting at the country’s airport or its other entry points—it’s what is missing. No rustling plastic bags. No stray wrappers caught on the wind. Just spotless pavements, thriving greenery, and the unmistakable signs of a country that has become a global pioneer in the fight against plastic.
But Kigali is the exception, not the rule.
Across the East African Community (EAC), plastic pollution is swelling like a tide. In Kenya, plastic waste makes up 12% of the country’s total solid waste – nearly 966,000 tonnes annually, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). Tanzania fares even worse, with over 7,000 tonnes of plastic waste generated daily, contributing to nearly half of the country’s total waste. Uganda generates more than 600 tonnes of plastic waste per day, yet remains the region’s hotspot for unmanaged single-use plastics.
Despite bans and penalties – like $40,000 fines in Kenya or $426,000 penalties in Tanzania—plastic bags, cutlery, and wrappers continue to flood markets, rivers, and coastlines. But a new wave is rising, and it is not built on recycling. It is built on reuse.
The reuse reset
The global narrative has long hailed recycling as the holy grail of sustainability. But here is the stark truth: less than 9% of plastic waste is ever recycled. The rest leaks into the environment, chokes marine life, or piles up in landfills.
“Recycling, at best, trims 31% of greenhouse gas emissions in the packaging sector,” notes a recent environmental study.
“But reuse? It slashes single-use packaging by 90%, and emissions by up to 80%.”
It is a staggering difference – one that the region cannot afford to ignore.
Reuse is not just about stainless steel water bottles and trendy shopping bags. It is about business. It reduces reliance on raw materials like plastic, aluminum, wood, and steel; resources that are becoming more expensive and politically fraught to access. And in a world wracked by supply chain disruptions and resource scarcity, reuse offers a pathway to resilience.
A 2021 study by The Pew Charitable Trusts found that reuse systems have the highest potential to eliminate waste while also saving $516 per tonne of plastic waste compared to the current “business as usual” model.
Bottles, mugs, and the business case
Reuse remains modest around the region, but promising sparks exist. The beverage industry is leading the way. East African Breweries in Kenya and Bralirwa in Rwanda both rely on refillable glass bottles and reusable plastic mugs for a large share of their product delivery, cutting costs and carbon in the process.
“Standardisation and early investment are critical to scale,” says one reuse advocate.
“We didn’t build the internet or renewable energy grids without infrastructure. Reuse is no different.”
But even within the beverage sector, the problem of plastic waste persists. According to Cameron Smith, Founder at Unwaste.io, beverage companies continue to dominate East Africa’s discarded container waste.
“Not surprisingly, Coca-Cola is the leader because it’s the only company that produces and sells plastic in every one of the markets,” he notes.
Available data reveals that Coca-Cola is the top contributor of plastic waste in the region, followed by Tanzania-based Bakhresa Group. The third-highest is Metro Group, also based in Tanzania, and fourth is Trade Kings, an industrial combine from Zambia.
“Although Coca-Cola, which is based outside the continent, is the lead contributor, the other major contributors in the top 10 are mostly regional companies,” Smith adds.
“This means it should be fairly easy to talk to them, particularly in East African countries, and encourage them to adopt more environmentally holistic approaches to their waste.”
Interestingly, in Rwanda, Coca-Cola ranks fourth. Bakhresa Group tops the list, while a local unnamed company occupies the third spot.
“What would be really interesting is to do outreach efforts,” Smith says, “and push these producers to at least profess and implement reduction measures. You would hope their market share of pollution starts to decrease monthly.”
Meanwhile, the UK is partnering with Rwanda through its Manufacturing Africa programme to support the development of an Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) scheme, based on the polluter-pays principle. Under this model, companies that place plastic packaging on the market must pay a fee to fund waste collection, sorting, and recycling.
“By providing better data on plastics, this will help with the implementation of an EPR scheme,” says Anna Wilson, Development Director at the British High Commission in Kigali.
This builds on Rwanda’s existing regulations and a pilot project led in partnership with the Private Sector Federation.
Waste data also shows that while beverages dominate, other sectors are not far behind: 4% of plastic waste comes from the food industry, and 3% from household and personal care products – including items like cleaning agents, moisturisers, and handwashing products. About 18% of recorded waste has yet to be matched to a specific sector.
Rwanda: Where policy meets practice
Rwanda banned plastic bags and bottles back in 2008 – a move many considered radical. Today, it’s a global model. Visitors are warned at customs: no plastic allowed. Offenders face fines or jail time. The results are visible, tangible, and transformative.
Rwanda now co-chairs the High Ambition Coalition to End Plastic Pollution by 2040, alongside Norway, and is pushing for a legally binding Global Plastics Treaty.
The country’s success lies not just in legislation, but in community initiatives. From Umuganda (the monthly community clean-up day) to citizen participation remains the keystone of Kigali’s cleanliness.
EAC’s plastic crossroads
The EAC is now considering a harmonised Draft Single-Use Plastics (SUP) Bill, which aims to ban non-essential SUPs like microbeads, wet wipes, and wrappers. If passed, it would unify the region’s plastic laws and encourage a common market for sustainable alternatives.
Yet, legal language alone will not solve the crisis. Financial, infrastructural, and institutional barriers remain steep. Outside of Rwanda and Kenya, enforcement and accessible alternatives remain lacking.
Experts argue that reuse infrastructure—for washing, collecting, and tracking containers, must be urgently developed. Cross-border standardisation, education campaigns, and public-private partnerships are essential for scale and adoption.
A race against time
Plastic is not just a litter problem; it is an environmental, public health, and geopolitical issue. Microplastics are found in fish, salt, and even human blood. Ocean currents carry debris across continents. COVID-19 has left behind mountains of single-use plastics.
Without decisive, united action, the region’s rivers, cities, and coasts risk drowning in debris.
But reuse offers a hopeful horizon – one that is economically viable, environmentally critical, and ethically urgent.
The businesses that act now won’t just future-proof their operations.
They’ll shape the future itself.
