Letter to The President - Lowenthal, Udall, Merkley, Cohen, Blumenauer, Lead 62 Bipartisan Members of Congress Urging Trump Administration to Ensure Future Trade Agreement with Kenya Doesn't Undermine Plastic Waste Mitigation Efforts

Letter

As you negotiate a trade deal between the United States and Kenya, we write to express our
strong opposition to efforts to weaken Kenya's restrictions on importation or consumption of
single-use plastic and other products responsible for plastic pollution.
Plastic pollution is a major global problem. Of the estimated 8.3 billion metric tons of plastic
produced in the past 60 years, 6.3 billion metric tons have become plastic waste and much of that
has polluted our natural environment leading to major blights on the environment, economies,
and health of countries around the world.
Every year, enough plastic -- about 8 million tons -- escapes into the ocean that five grocery bags
full of plastic trash would fit on every foot of coastline around the globe. In addition to ocean
pollution, plastic is contaminating every area of the world, including miles above us in the form
of micro-plastic pollution found in raindrops that fall in areas as remote as Rocky Mountain
National Park.1
With nearly 400 million tons of plastic produced globally each year and failed
policies to reclaim and recycle that plastic, we are creating suffocating amounts of plastic that are
harming our environment, our health, and our budgets.
In Kenya, plastic pollution has had a devastating impact on their health, environment, and
economy. Plastic bag pollution has led to major issues, such as clogged drainage systems that
contributed to mass flooding in rainy seasons. A study supported by the National Environmental
Management Agency in 2018 found that more than 50% of cattle near urban areas in Kenya had
plastic bags in their stomachs.2
Plastic beverage bottles and other plastic containers are
ubiquitous in landscapes, residential areas, rivers, and beaches.
Some of this pollution can be attributed to plastic that was exported from the United States. In
2019, the United States exported more than 1 billion pounds of plastic waste to 96 countries,

1
It is raining plastic, by the United States Geological Survey (May 2019),
https://pubs.er.usgs.gov/publication/ofr20191048
2 The prevalence of plastic bag waste in the rumen of slaughtered livestock at three abattoirs in Nairobi Metropolis,
Kenya and implications on livestock health, by the National Environmental Management Agency (October 2018),
http://www.lrrd.org/lrrd30/11/clang30182.html
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including Kenya. While many Americans believe they are recycling their plastic when they sort
it at home for collection, this plastic often ends up as waste in developing countries with poor
waste management capabilities and ultimately finds its way into rivers, oceans, and landscapes.
Indeed, even countries with excellent waste management systems cannot keep up with the everincreasing amounts of plastic that is impossible to recycle.
As a result, this plastic waste is often buried in landfills, set on fire in open lots, or lost to the
ocean and the environment, while many in industry blame these developing countries for the
pollution that is found in rivers and oceans. This is a crisis that has captured the attention of the
global community. In May of last year, 187 countries took a major step to limit the flow of
plastic waste to developing countries under the Basel Convention. Additionally, more than 100
countries have expressed support for a new global agreement to address the full life-cycle of
plastics.
In both cases, the United States has not only failed to be a leader, but instead is actively working
against progress on tackling this pollution. The United States' solution to the plastic pollution
crisis cannot be to simply open more markets abroad for plastic products and find destinations to
send increasing amounts of plastic waste. This is totally at odds with the global policy solution
to prevent plastic pollution--not to mention climate change.
Kenya's own response to mounting plastic pollution was to take action to restrict plastic bags in
2017 and recently to restrict single-use plastic products in certain protected areas. In addition,
Kenya is one of the 187 countries to sign onto the Basel amendments restricting the flow of
plastic waste to developing countries.
Actions taken by the United States to undermine global efforts to restrict plastic waste exports
and strategies to reduce single-use plastic and other wasteful products may benefit private
corporations and for-profit industries that have only share-holder returns in mind, but they are a
bad strategy for United States' interests abroad and will make it difficult to reach more equitable
trade agreements that promote sustainable jobs and protect our environment.
We strongly oppose using the trade negotiations with Kenya to undermine their domestic efforts
to restrict importation or consumption of single-use plastic and other polluting products. We
believe the United States. should begin efforts to ratify the Basel Convention and cease to
undermine the Basel plastic amendments in other forums to which that the United States belongs,
such as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The United States should
adopt a position like the European Union of not only prohibiting the export of hazardous waste to
developing countries, but also include the recently agreed to plastic waste listings in the Basel
Annex II.
The United States should make no attempts to undermine Kenya's, or any other developing
nations, domestic laws or regional agreements developed to meaningfully protect the health and
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environment of its people, such as bans on plastic bags and restrictions on single-use plastics.
The United States should publicly affirm this position and begin a process of joining with other
countries to proactively address plastic pollution internationally as well as at home.

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