Kenya’s waste laws have reached the supermarket shelf. Retailers are now asking the companies that supply them to prove they comply with extended producer responsibility (EPR) rules, and the pressure is exposing how far many producers still have to go.
The rules
The Sustainable Waste Management Act of 2022 makes producers responsible for the waste their products and packaging create. The Sustainable Waste Management (Extended Producer Responsibility) Regulations, 2024, which commenced on 4 November 2024, put that duty into practice, alongside separate regulations on plastic packaging. Producers, importers and brand owners must register with the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) and meet their obligations either through their own compliance scheme or by joining a producer responsibility organisation (PRO) such as the Kenya Extended Producer Responsibility Organisation.
Fees include a one-off registration charge and an annual licence fee, and producers must report on what they place on the market and how it is collected and recovered. After court challenges were cleared, NEMA has moved to enforce both sets of rules.
Retailers pass the risk upstream
Large retailers do not want non-compliant goods on their shelves. Naivas has written to its suppliers asking for an EPR certificate, proof of PRO membership and a plastic packaging material licence. In April the Retail Trade Association of Kenya warned that fewer than 15% of suppliers had secured EPR certification, and that strict enforcement could cause shortages and price increases.
Producer organisations support the framework but have raised concerns about the design of levies, warning that poor implementation could distort markets.
What this means for companies
- Manufacturers and importers need registration, a scheme membership and data on the volumes of packaging they place on the market.
- Small producers face the heaviest relative burden and may benefit most from joining a collective scheme rather than running their own.
- Retailers are effectively becoming compliance gatekeepers, which strengthens enforcement but also concentrates risk at the point of sale.
- Recyclers and collectors stand to gain if EPR fees translate into contracts for collection and recovery.
For ESG analysts, the episode is a reminder that environmental regulation often bites through supply chains rather than inspectors. Companies that can document their packaging footprint and their recovery arrangements will find it easier to keep their place on the shelf.
Sources: Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr: Kenya enacts EPR regulations · Kenya Law: EPR Regulations, Legal Notice 176 of 2024 · The Star: Retailers warn of shortages as waste rules bite
