World Environment Day on 5 June is the biggest international day for the environment. Led by UNEP and held annually since 1973, the event has grown to be the largest global platform for environmental outreach, with millions of people from across the world engaging to protect the planet. This year, World Environment Day joins the UNEP-led #BeatPlasticPollution campaign to end plastic pollution.  

While the burden falls heaviest on the poor and most vulnerable, almost no one is immune from pollution. Some 99 per cent of people, for example, breathe unclean air. Pollution is the most common environment-related cause of death and illness, with countless people around the world exposed to pathogen-laced water and soil and a range of potentially toxic chemicals.

“Vulnerable communities disproportionately bear the brunt of environmental degradation caused by plastics pollution, and action is urgently needed to address the issue and restore access to human rights, health and well-being,” the UN’s Environment Programme says.

Although plastic pollution is a global issue, it is those in disadvantaged communities who suffer from it the most. Some of the main reasons are that vulnerable communities are often uneducated on proper waste management; located near landfills or plastic treatment centres; and plastic waste is often imported from abroad and causing the plastic to leak into communities. One of these communities disproportionately affected by plastic waste is women.

Plastic waste not only endangers the livelihoods of those relying on marine resources, it also causes a raft of health issues for people who consume seafood infested with toxic micro and nano plastics.

Women suffer from plastic-related toxicity risk, due to higher aggregate exposure to plastics at home and even in feminine care products.

 

Plastic Pollution as a gender Issue:

In rural communities across the world, including in Sub Sahara Africa, gender roles continue to be more traditional. Women are the housemakers while men go out and earn an income. While there is nothing inherently wrong with these roles, it also means that women are more exposed to plastics surrounding household cleaners and other items.

 

Figure 1  Soroptimists and Communities Leading the Way to Clean up drainages of plastic Waste in Kenya

Furthermore, cosmetics and female hygiene products often contain large amounts of plastic, further exposing women to harmful chemicals found in certain types of plastic. While many high-income countries have regulations to prevent these types of plastics entering households, middle- and low-income countries don’t have such regulations.

Women are often exposed to unsafe working conditions dur to gender roles. While Men often get paid positions in recycling centres and plants where they receive health care, training, and personal protective equipment. Women cannot get these positions because these types of jobs are viewed as dangerous and therefore unfit for women. This leaves many women to participate in the informal sector as waste pickers. As waste pickers, women rarely receive access to health care, training, or personal protective equipment, creating a much more dangerous environment than their male counterparts experience.

Differences in gender, social roles, and political power in regulating plastic use and health standards place women at high risk of miscarriages and cancer, further exacerbating gender-related disparities overall.

 

Women Leading the Way to tackling Plastic Pollution

Women in particular play a critical role across the plastic and water value chains – as gatekeepers of household consumption who purchase products packaged in plastic, and collectively spend 200 million work hours in just one day collecting water for their families. Further down the system, women engage in an informal capacity as collectors of plastic waste. In fact, the bulk of informal workers within the plastic value chain are women – in Ghana alone, 99% of those washing and sorting plastic waste are women. 

Here’s how plastic pollution affects women and how you and your company can help combat this exponentially growing issue.

The impacts of plastics on marginalized populations are severe, and exist at all stages of the production cycle, from extracting raw materials and manufacturing, through to consumption and disposal,” the UNEP notes based on findings detailed in a new report.

“Plastic waste not only endangers the livelihoods of those relying on marine resources, it also causes a raft of health issues for people who consume seafood infested with toxic micro and nano plastics. Women suffer from plastic-related toxicity risk, due to higher aggregate exposure to plastics at home and even in feminine care products,” the UN agency elucidates.

These insights should come as no surprise. Economically disadvantaged people tend to live in communities with higher rates of pollution from air and water pollution to plastics pollution.

Women are working at the very heart of plastic waste management, and the informal economy is driving this – the value that women bring to addressing plastic pollution is undeniable.

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#HealthierPeople #HealtheirPlanet

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