Initiative to Raise Recycling Across Africa to 50% Launched at COP27

The newly-launched ‘Global Waste Initiative 50 by 2050’ aims to raise the percentage of solid waste recycling in Africa from less than 10% to 50% by 2050.

The initiative was launched at a COP27 session featuring Egypt’s Minister of Environment H.E. Dr Yasmine Fouad, Kenya’s Minister of Environment H.E. Soipan Tuya, Nigeria’s Minister of Environment H.E. Mohammed H. Abdullahi, Inger Andersen, the United Nations Environment Programme’s Executive Director,  and Valerie Hickey, Global Director for Environment and Natural Resources and the Blue Economy at the World Bank. 

The initiative brings together a pipeline of initiatives worth more than USD 300 billion and provides national guidance to achieve the collective 40% raise goal.

In order to guarantee that this goal is met, the ‘Global Waste Initiative 50 by 2050’ will support shared policies to encourage intra-and-inter-country collaboration with various African stakeholders, based on an updated baseline. It is considered the first continental initiative of this scale to be raised during a COP event.