Ensuring sustainability in plastics use in Africa: consumption, waste generation, and projections

Babayemi, Joshua O.; Nnorom, Innocent C.; Osibanjo, Oladele; Weber, Roland

doi:10.1186/s12302-019-0254-5

Environmental Sciences Europe

Table 2 Ranking of African countries based on the amount of plastic imports and consumption between 1990 and 2017

From: Ensuring sustainability in plastics use in Africa: consumption, waste generation, and projections

Country	Population (2015)^a	Import period	Plastic in primary form (tonnes) $T_{{y_{1} }} = \mathop \sum \limits_{c = 3901}^{3914} P_{c}$	Plastic as plastic product (tonnes) $T_{{y_{2} }} = \mathop \sum \limits_{c = 3915}^{3926} P_{c}$	Total plastics (tonnes) $P_{t} = T_{{y_{1} }} + T_{{y_{2} }}$	Approx. value (million US$)^b
Egypt	94,408,000	1994–2017	17,690,897	4,007,894	21,698,792	36,966.5
Nigeria	173,000,000	1996–2017	15,765,771	4,099,822	19,865,593	23,158.2
South Africa	54,956,900	2000–2017	9,672,413	4,020,752	13,693,166	28,299.0
Algeria	40,235,000	1992–2017	10,499,605	2,643,284	13,142,889	23,237.8
Morocco	33,337,529	1993–2016	8,927,814	2,348,405	11,276,219	21,548.1
Tunisia	10,982,754	1991–2017	6,312,691	1,752,991	8,065,682	17,818.1
Kenya	45,533,000	1992–2017	3459070	755,371	4,214,440	5520.9
Ghana	27,043,093	1996–2017	2,241,856	967,192	3,209,048	4286.1
Ethiopia	99,391,000	1995–2015	2,095,508	1,045,286	3,140,793	5864.3
Zimbabwe	13,061,239	1995–2016	796,227	1,473,844	2,270,071	2118.7
Uganda	34,856,813	1994–2017	1,443,505	505,236	1,948,741	2905.9
Senegal	14,354,690	1996–2017	1,102,509	497,373	1,599,882	2506.5
Zambia	15,473,905	1995–2017	896,827	609,749	1,506,575	2520.1
Malawi	16,832,900	1990–2015	510,360	915,778	1,426,137	1048.9
Cameroon	21,917,602	1995–2017	852,119	538,971	1,391,089	2467.0
Mauritius	1,261,208	1993–2017	605,050	695,342	1,300,392	2333.5
Mozambique	28,013,000	1994–2017	664,820	622,595	1,287,414	1601.1
Botswana	2,024,904	2000–2017	347,142	539,090	886,232	1742.8
Namibia	2,280,700	2000–2017	212,491	628,956	841,447	2043.2
Madagascar	22,434,363	1990–2017	434,064	284,433	718,497	1382.5
Togo	6,191,155	1994–2017	503,322	202,433	705,755	1051.2
Mali	14,528,662	1996–2017	259,211	237,711	496,922	783.4
Mauritania	3,718,678	2000–2017	170,134	307,214	477,348	423.4
Burkina Faso	18,450,494	1995–2016	124,927	351,621	476,548	76.6
Benin	10,008,749	1998–2016	81,018	305,276	386,293	368.2
Seychelles	90,945	1994–2017	14,616	331,621	346,237	364.6
Guinea	10,628,972	1995–2015	201,223	127,521	328,744	295.7
Rwanda	10,515,973	1996–2016	80,536	171,718	252,253	542.3
Niger	17,138,707	1995–2016	31,344	151,468	182,811	290.8
Gabon	1,802,278	1993–2009	80,481	89,008	169,489	409.0
Gambia	1,882,450	1995–2016	8497	111,937	120,433	88.6
Cape Verde	491,875	1997–2017	22,013	96,638	118,651	339.4
Burundi	9,823,828	1993–2017	34,921	66,552	101,473	187.5
Total	856,671,366		86,142,982	31,503,082	117,646,056	194,589.9

^aPopulation source: Answers Africa [30]
^bApprox. value is based on the reported data in the Comtrade database

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