Off the shimmering turquoise waters of Kenya’s South Coast, Wasini Island feels like it belongs in a postcard. With no roads or vehicles, the rocky island relies almost entirely on fishing to sustain its modest economy. But today, a walk along its shores paints a far less idyllic picture.
Plastic waste – bottles, containers, packaging from all over the world – is strewn across the beaches. In what should be a breeding ground for fish, locals now find an alarming layer of discarded plastic, swept in by ocean currents. The once-rich fishing zones are now suffocating under the weight of pollution.
“Our fish catch has gone down,” says Mkande Buyaa, a fisherman who has spent most of his life casting nets into these waters. “We see plastic everywhere, even where we used to find the most fish.”
Despite their limited resources, Wasini residents haven’t sat idly. Locals organize regular beach cleanups, stuffing plastic waste into sacks. But with no recycling facilities on the island, they must ferry their collections across the channel to Shimoni on the mainland, where recyclers buy the waste. “It’s like trying to wash the ocean,” says Saidi Musa. “Every week, we collect plastic bottles filling up a boat,” he adds, referencing the sheer scale of plastic washing ashore daily.
Hundreds of kilometers north, in Kilifi County’s Malindi beaches, the situation is equally dire. Tiny, weathered shards of plastic — known as microplastics — mix invisibly into the sand and sea. Marine scientists warn that fish ingest these plastics, which then end up on human plates.
A closer look reveals heavy plastic pollution—most of it already broken down into tiny fragments. According to environmental experts, these microplastics are being ingested by marine life and eventually make their way onto our plates through fish and seafood products.
A global study covering March 2019 to March 2020 found that 60% of fish across 198 species in 24 countries contained microplastics. The numbers are even higher in some regions. In Oregon, researchers detected microplastics in 98.9% of seafood samples, while in Tunisia, 92.5% of sardines had microplastics in their digestive systems, according to ScienceDirect.
Places like Wasini, Malindi, Lamu, and the entire coastline are living evidence of a global plastic crisis with local consequences. According to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the equivalent of 2,000 garbage trucks full of plastic is dumped into oceans, rivers, and lakes every single day. Every year, 19 to 23 million tonnes of plastic waste leak into aquatic ecosystems, threatening biodiversity and food security.
Further up Kenya’s North Coast, in Lamu County’s Amu Island, the story remains the same. Plastic and human waste clutter the coastline, driving away swimmers and marine life alike.
Fatma Farah, a resident of nearby Matondoni village, reminisces about her childhood when the shores were pristine. “Now, it’s diapers, plastic bottles, wrappers… You can’t swim here anymore. It pains me to see a once clean and beautiful beach full of all manner of pollutants,” she says with a mixture of nostalgia and sadness.
But amid the despair, sparks of innovation shine through.
In Faza Island, not far from Amu, Idris Ali and his brother are building boats — not from traditional wood alone, but incorporating hundreds of plastic bottles as part of their raw materials. Their community-led project involves local schoolchildren who collect discarded bottles along the beach. Thanks to their efforts, their beach is now free of plastic, something they are proud of.
“We keep on picking plastic bottles here because they are washed offshore by the water,” says Idris Ali, a local environmental champion.
The boats that Idris and his brother make are used in boat races organized by a local non-governmental organization. Idris proudly shows off the boat that won the last race. “We began making small boats, but we are advancing each day. The boat we are making now can carry between six to eight people,” he adds.
Idris and his team are also training schoolchildren in environmental conservation during school holidays.
While their efforts may seem like a drop in the ocean, these community-led solutions offer hope. They remind us that in the face of a vast and overwhelming problem, every small action counts. From Wasini to Faza, from beaches clogged with plastic to boats built from it, Kenya’s coastal communities are not just victims of pollution. They are quietly becoming its unlikely heroes.
