UNEP links waste and want on World Environment Day

Some of Kenya’s top fashion models and designers took part in novel shows in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, on Monday and Tuesday, wearing dresses and accessories made from recycled plastic, rubber and other waste materials, to highlight the problems of the throwaway society on World Environment Day, 5 June. The “Plastic Fantastic: Turning Garbage into Art” shows were part of a week-long programme of events organised by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) “to alert the public in a fun, provocative and entertaining way to the fact that these materials have real value, and that to reduce, reuse and recyle makes economic and environmental sense,” said UNEP Executive Director Klaus Toepfer. Nairobi-based designer Penny Winter - who based her clothes for the show on denim recycled from “mitumba” (secondhand) markets, plastic, car parts from a scrap-yard and the inner tubes of tyres - told IRIN she was delighted to be associated with an event that raised awareness of the environment and emphasised creativity in using all sorts of waste materials. “Plastic Fantastic” was also a fund-raising event to support and raise funds for the second phase of UNEP’s Nairobi River Basin Project. It aims to address massive human and environmental problems arising from increased population, mushrooming informal or slum human settlements, increased industrial effluent and a reduction in water supply - due in no small part to deforestation - in the Kenyan capital. Also this week, UNEP intends to have a clean-up of the City Park and Market area in Nairobi, tree-planting at 20 sites across the city and in 13 other towns, and the clearance of the fast-growing water hyacinth from part of Nairobi Dam. The aim of that project is not just to clear the plant, which is a threat to the river basin, but to demonstrate that environmental protection can tie in with income generation by harvesting water hyacinth for making furniture, carpets, screens, paper, compost, fuel briquettes and roof tiles. Christian Lambrechts, of the agency’s Early Warning and Assessment Division, also highlighted an initiative to plant a tree for each of the 2,000 reams of paper his department uses annually, in a bid to redress the balance between consumption and the environment. The division has chosen to work with the Kenyan Forestry Department and Kijabe Environment Volunteers to try regenerating a section of indigenous rainforest in the Aberdare Mountains, which supply most of Nairobi’s drinking water, and to interest other parts of UNEP and the UN offices in Nairobi in supporting the scheme. With 80 percent to 90 percent of Nairobi slum residents having no access to running water, but having to purchase it from vendors at exorbitant prices or using filthy river water, the importance of cleaning up Nairobi’s rivers is evident for health and development, as well as environmental reasons, according to the River Basin Project. [for more details, go to: http://www.nairobi-rivers.iconnect.co.ke/] In addition to using this week’s World Environment Day events to increase awareness of the links between consumption, waste and the environment, UNEP is encouraging politicians, businesses and community groups to support income-generating schemes to reuse and recycle materials. “We need everyone’s support to reduce this squandering of our natural resources so that Kenya can become a cleaner, healthier, litter-free place,” said Valerie Leakey, one of the organisers of the events for the UNEP regional office for Africa.