NEMA executive director, Barirega Akankwasah, PhD said that besides being a menace to the environment, single-use plastics loses quality upon recycling to a point of not being reusable, it’s costly managing its circularity hence unprofitable. He also added that “𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗳𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘀𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗶𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗱𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗽𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁”. This was during an engagement with the private sector actors on environment management in Uganda.

He added that the private sector is at the heart of socio-economic transformation while harnessing innovations and adding value to natural resources derived from the environment hence a great influence on social, political and economic advancement.

Population growth in Uganda has caused pressure on the environment; resources, biodiversity, air and noise pollution, land use and energy and the private sector remains a great source of solutions and technologies. It’s important to acknowledge that a healthy environment will sustain businesses, power industries, biodiversity and health.

Challenges such as pollution from single-use plastics or plastics used in packaging, industrial waste discharge, etc., should be given attention. Between 1990 and 2010, there has been heavy pressure on segments of the environment such as forest leading to a huge cover loss however, between 2011 to date there has been increased progress in reversing forest cover loss from 9% to ~ 13% of total Uganda’s surface area.

The private sector actors requested NEMA to spearhead the development of a circularity strategy to handle product life cycle in Uganda.

Present at the engagement was KACITA, Uganda Association of Impact Assessors, Leather Industries, Small Scale Industries Associations, Environment actors, UMA, GHASP, Eco Bricks producers, and other NGOs.

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