A GREENER HUSTLE: KAPSABET TRADERS TAKE SMALL STEPS TO BEAT PLASTIC POLLUTION
KAPSABET, Kenya – As the world marked World Environment Day today under the theme “Beat Plastic Pollution,” signs of change though modest are beginning to emerge in Kapsabet’s busy markets. Traders, once heavily reliant on single-use plastics, are slowly rethinking their habits in a quiet but meaningful shift toward sustainability.
Walking through Kapsabet Main Market today, one couldn’t help but notice the subtle but promising changes. A few traders had reused sacks to package goods. Others, like Beatrice Jebet, had arranged her mangoes and avocados in colorful nets, a practice she says helps reduce plastic use while keeping her produce well-aired and visible to customers. 
“Some still ask for plastic, but I explain to them that it’s harmful to our environment,” she told me. “A few listen and change. That gives me hope.”
Not every stall has gone green, but conversations about pollution are happening more openly. At a stall selling second-hand clothes, David Kipruto was using a mix of paper and old polythene bags that he collects and reuses.
“There’s no denying plastics make things easier,” he admitted. “But if we keep dumping them everywhere, soon this market will be unbearable.”
Plastic waste has long posed a challenge in Kapsabet’s markets. It’s not uncommon to see plastic bags clogging drainage systems or littering the spaces between stalls. But today, traders and shoppers alike seemed more aware. Some carried reusable bags and woven baskets. Others brought small containers from home for their purchases.
As I moved from one stall to another, it was clear the effort may not yet be perfect, but it’s genuine.
I came across Alice Ngeno, a vegetable trader in Namgoi Market, who had set up a small corner with a sack labeled “Takataka ya Plastiki.”
“We’ve started separating it,” she said. “It’s not much, but we’re trying. If we don’t care for our space, who will?”
There were still traces of plastic scattered here and there, but compared to previous visits, the markets felt a little cleaner, a little more conscious.
As a local communicator and observer, I found today encouraging. It reminded me that change doesn’t always begin with big declarations sometimes, it begins with a conversation at a vegetable stall, a reused bag, or a cleaner walkway.
World Environment Day may be a global event, but in Kapsabet, it’s becoming a local movement one small choice at a time.