"We should create awareness to inform communities to take plastic pollution seriously and help remove plastics from the oceans where they have outnumbered fish," Mqulwana said.

She urged African countries to move beyond sustainable programs and begin to deal with the waste right from the source.

"Single-use plastics are no longer useful in Africa and have to be eradicated forthwith,” she said.

Joyce Msuya, the acting executive director of the UN Environment, said at least 8 million tons of plastic enters the oceans every year. Due to that, whales have been washed up on shores, having choked on plastic bags.

“Adventurers have spotted lumps of polystyrene packaging floating in the Southern Ocean, one of the most remote parts of the earth. Even tests on bottled water from all corners of the globe have found microscopic plastic particles in every sample,” Msuya said.