Churches in the capital of the Democratic Republic Of Congo, Kinshasa, have joined forces to clean up the highly polluted Congo River that runs through the city.
Christ Church Congo is a union of Protestant and Evangelical denominations that runs a recycling social enterprise which is funded by UK charity Bin Twinning which was set up by Tearfund UK.
Tearfund is a Christian ministry which says its mission is to work for a better world, fighting poverty and injustice.
It says plastic waste is making poverty worse for vulnerable communities around the planet.
It claims mismanaged waste is responsible for up to a million deaths every year.
Local waste pickers in Kinshasa collect a tiny fraction of the plastic rubbish that has been dumped in the Congo River and take it to the recycling centre.
Seren Boyd from Bin Twinning writes in Christian Today that: “Informal waste collectors like those in the Congo, who gather and sell recyclable materials, are credited with collecting 60% of the plastics recycled globally.”
The plastics recovered in Kinshasa are melted down and mixed with materials such as sand to be recycled into products like paving slabs for roads.
The church cooperative recycles 11 tonnes of waste per month. That’s a drop in the ocean compared to the estimated 7,000 tonnes dumped into the Congo River every day.
In Australia, Tearfund has launched The Rubbish Campaign which calls on Christians to tackle what it calls the nation’s “urgent plastic waste crisis”
Australia produces around 2.5 million tonnes of plastic waste every year.
Tearfund Australia CEO Matthew Maury said “God has blessed us with a beautiful world to look after and treasure. But right now, our world has a rubbish problem – and it’s severely affecting the health and wellbeing of people living in poverty.”
Over the next two years nearly 200 governments will work on the development of the first-ever international agreement on plastic pollution.
With talks to resume in Paris this month, a Tearfund petition calls on the Australian Government to do all it can to influence global negotiations.
“A concerted global effort is needed to address this problem and deal with the scourge of plastic pollution and its impacts on poverty. The plastics treaty is a unique opportunity to do this,” said Mr. Maury.
“Plastic pollution is harming people’s livelihoods and undermining the progress made in recent decades to end poverty. It is literally making people sick. Dumping and burning of rubbish releases toxic fumes, floods communities and is causing up to a million deaths each year,” he added.
Tackling plastic pollution is the theme for this year’s World Environment Day on June 5.
