From November 13 to 19, the Third Intergovernmental Negotiating Conference on the Plastics Treaty (INC-3) was held at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya. According to the Guardian, the conference aims to develop a treaty to combat plastic pollution.

According to data released by Eurostat, the European Union exported more than 1.1 million tons of plastic waste to non-EU and some regions in 2022, most of which went to Turkey, Malaysia and Indonesia.

The European Union has vowed to reduce the dumping of waste in other regions, but this is difficult to achieve. Due to the lack of traceability and transparency in the global waste trade, a lot of waste is illegally exported to Myanmar, causing serious pollution to the local area.

"If we don't implement the export ban, we will see in the coming years that some poor people are not getting better at being polluted." Said Pernell Weiss, a member of the European Parliament.

According to the Guardian, analysis shows that plastic waste is currently "out of control" in Africa, and it is growing faster than any other region.

At current levels, enough plastic waste to cover a football field is dumped or incinerated every minute in sub-Saharan Africa, according to Tearfund, a UK-based relief and development agency. The region is expected to generate 116 million tons of plastic waste per year by 2060, six times more than in 2019. In addition, global plastic use is expected to triple by 2060.

Tearfund economist Rich Gower said: "The signs of environmental collapse are everywhere. This treaty is expected to help stem the plastic crisis and improve the lives of billions of people. Most of the plastic used in sub-Saharan Africa is plastic packaging, which ends up being dumped and incinerated." Goldun urged delegates meeting in Nairobi to put at the forefront of the treaty, such as agreeing to drastically reduce plastic production.

In the absence of global regulations, people living in development and those looking for solutions to poverty suffer from the severe environmental and human health impacts of plastic pollution.

Dr Tiwanger MZumala-Gava, a Malawian activist at the conference, said: "The health of people in Africa, like Malawi, is affected by plastic pollution every day. In Malawi, we see burning and dumping every day, and these practices are damaging people's health. The conference in Kenya shows that change is coming in relation to plastic waste."

Kenyan activist John Chuya, who focuses on the rights of waste pickers, says the new treaty should include health care and better working conditions for them.