Let's hear how the massive continent of Africa handles this kind of waste. I'll send it over to Richard in Nairobi for that.

As nations across Africa experience an increase in population and rapid urbanization, waste management continues to be a challenge. Uncollected trash on the streets poses health risks, while giant landfills can result in land contamination from toxic compounds. Fragile marine environments are also under threat from plastic debris accumulating in the oceans. But now African governments are try to tackle the challenge of waste management. CGTN's Daniella Pearson has more.

Waste management continues to be a challenge across the African continent. Especially in lower income areas and the informal settlements of major cities.

Just months earlier, violence erupted in South Africa's impoverished Alexandria township over inadequate public service delivery.

"This is my house and here's the sewage. I've even tried to direct the sewage to the drain but it comes every day, I have to clean streets every day. There's a smell and my kids are sick."

DAVID HARRIS GENERAL MANAGER FOR DISPOSALS, PIKITUP, JOHANNESBURG "There are a lot of options, alternative ways to manage the waste. However, it has become a big problem, not only in Johannesburg, all over the world. Every city in South Africa is sitting on the same problem, that their landfill airspace is now coming to the end."

But governments are waking up to the disastrous health and environmental consequences, that come with failing to correctly manage their trash.

In fact, the continent is at the global forefront of plastic bag regulation, and 34 African nations have already banned single-use plastic bags.

Botswana introduced a levy on plastics bags over a decade ago, while Kenya has the strictest penalties.

Tanzania is the latest to impose restrictions and Rwanda is aiming to become the world's first plastic-free country.

But there is another type of waste to contend with, one that could prove to be far more dangerous.

According to the UN environmental agency, e-waste is one of the fastest-growing types of waste in the world. It says that every year, the world produces about 50 million tons of e-waste, but only 20% is recycled.

Much of the rest ends up in landfills, or is recycled informally in developing nations.

There is a longstanding narrative of western countries using West Africa as a dumping ground for used electronics, with countries like Nigeria and Ghana bearing the brunt.

But simply ending this export of e-waste to Africa will not solve the problem. While the Bamako convention prohibits the import into Africa of any hazardous waste, a significant portion of the e-waste dumps in African countries comes from the continent itself.

With the explosion of mobile phone ownership across the continent, and the ever decreasing life cycles of electronic goods, African countries will need to keep looking for sustainable ways to process its waste. Daniella Pearson, CGTN.