Of Plastic bags and the environment
Felix Makasa was horrified after doing a quick late-hour shopping of household food items at a supermarket in Harare only to be told after paying at the till that he could not get plastic bags to carry his goodies due to a recent government ban on single-use plastic bags.
Makasa said that he bundled the goods against his chest, and as he stepped out of the supermarket, heavy rush-hour rains came pouring down.
Fearing for the goods, Makasa scrounged around for a cardboard box.
“It’s quite a big problem — this banning of plastic bags. It only works for a person buying one item. It’s not a solution; there should have been an alternative plan. Why don’t they try paper bags? What does one do when they want to board a kombi carrying a bunch of goods in their hands? They should find a better solution rather than create problems for shoppers. Of course, it will make supermarkets lose customers,” he said dejectedly.
Announcing the ban on plastic bags last year following a meeting with players in the plastic industry, including retailers and manufacturers, Environmental and Natural Resources Management Minister, Francis Nhema said plastic bags were killing 5 000 animals every year, and if they are burned, they infuse the air with toxic fumes.
“Once used most plastic bags go into landfills or rubbish dumps ending up littering the environment or finding their way into our waterways, parks and streets because they are non-biodegradable and their decomposition takes up to a 1 000 years,” he said.
“About 5 000 animals such as donkeys, cattle, sheep and goats are being killed every year after ingesting plastic bags, and the ingested plastic bag remains intact even after the death and decomposition of the animal.”
In spite of the fact that they cause pollution, kill wildlife, and use up the precious resources of the earth, plastic bags are very popular with both retailers and shoppers because they are cheap, lightweight, functional, and a hygienic means of carrying food as well as other goods.
Since its mass production began in the 1940s, plastic’s wide range of uses has propelled it to an essential status in society, to the extent that some people have an addiction for it – even if they buy one item that they can carry in their hands, they insist on getting a plastic bag.
“Who throws away plastic bags nowadays? Now, I am being forced to carry plastic bags from home? Imagine getting into a Kombi with goods. What really are we saving? The ban is making life very difficult,” said Enita Munemo, another disgruntled Harare shopper in an interview with NewsDay at a local supermarket.
Just like Makasa and Munemo, many shoppers in Zimbabwe have been seriously peeved and inconvenienced by the ban on single-use plastic bags which came into effect without their knowledge on January 1, leaving a lot to be desired about the public awareness campaign surrounding the ban.
Most of the shoppers interviewed were clearly not concerned about the harmful imprints of plastics bags on the environment and human health, only insisting that they wanted their plastic bags back.
To complicate matters, some businesses have a huge vested interested in the continued production and use of cheap plastic and have cited job losses as a reason to reverse the ban, without proffering an alternative of how to produce environmentally-friendly plastics.
According to Steady Kanyata, Enviromental Management Agency education and publicity manager, the ban on plastics follows the promulgation in March 2010 of the Statutory Instrument 98 on Plastic Packaging and Plastics Bottles Regulations.
Simply put, Statutory Instrument 98 stipulates that plastic for use in Zimbabwe should be more than 30 micrometres or microns, a measure of the thickness of a plastic.
A micron, or micrometre, is one-thousandth of a millimetre (one 25th of a thousandth of a centimetre). A human hair measures about 50 microns across.
Before the ban, most shops in Zimbabwe gave out plastic bags of a flimsy and easily-breakable type that customers could neither reuse nor were anywhere near recommended microns.
According to Masaka, some foreign companies, especially from South Africa — where single-use plastic bags are banned — took advantage of the gap in local environmental laws to engage in a lucrative business exporting flimsy plastic bags to Zimbabwe.
Bio-degradation of plastics can be achieved by enabling microorganisms in the environment to metabolise the molecular structure of plastic films to produce an inert humus-like material that is less harmful to the environment.
The same cannot be achieved with the lightweight, single-use plastic bags that were being dished out in local shops prior to the enactment of the legislation.
Masaka pointed out that his agency uses a gadget called a micrometer screw gauge to measure the microns or micrometers which make up the thickness of plastics and, any shop or manufacturer that is guilty of supplying the banned plastic bags would be liable to a fine of $5 000 dollars while repeat offenders would face legal action.
“Most surveys on illegal dumps show that 99% of waste is plastic. And plastic that is not bio-degradable just accumulates in the ecosystem leading to the clogging of sewers and water reticulation systems. In rural areas, if livestock eat plastic, they die. When it rains, plastic bags can cause flash floods because they clog water drainage systems,” he said.
Fearing for the goods, Makasa scrounged around for a cardboard box.
“It’s quite a big problem — this banning of plastic bags. It only works for a person buying one item. It’s not a solution; there should have been an alternative plan. Why don’t they try paper bags? What does one do when they want to board a kombi carrying a bunch of goods in their hands? They should find a better solution rather than create problems for shoppers. Of course, it will make supermarkets lose customers,” he said dejectedly.
Announcing the ban on plastic bags last year following a meeting with players in the plastic industry, including retailers and manufacturers, Environmental and Natural Resources Management Minister, Francis Nhema said plastic bags were killing 5 000 animals every year, and if they are burned, they infuse the air with toxic fumes.
“Once used most plastic bags go into landfills or rubbish dumps ending up littering the environment or finding their way into our waterways, parks and streets because they are non-biodegradable and their decomposition takes up to a 1 000 years,” he said.
“About 5 000 animals such as donkeys, cattle, sheep and goats are being killed every year after ingesting plastic bags, and the ingested plastic bag remains intact even after the death and decomposition of the animal.”
In spite of the fact that they cause pollution, kill wildlife, and use up the precious resources of the earth, plastic bags are very popular with both retailers and shoppers because they are cheap, lightweight, functional, and a hygienic means of carrying food as well as other goods.
Since its mass production began in the 1940s, plastic’s wide range of uses has propelled it to an essential status in society, to the extent that some people have an addiction for it – even if they buy one item that they can carry in their hands, they insist on getting a plastic bag.
“Who throws away plastic bags nowadays? Now, I am being forced to carry plastic bags from home? Imagine getting into a Kombi with goods. What really are we saving? The ban is making life very difficult,” said Enita Munemo, another disgruntled Harare shopper in an interview with NewsDay at a local supermarket.
Just like Makasa and Munemo, many shoppers in Zimbabwe have been seriously peeved and inconvenienced by the ban on single-use plastic bags which came into effect without their knowledge on January 1, leaving a lot to be desired about the public awareness campaign surrounding the ban.
Most of the shoppers interviewed were clearly not concerned about the harmful imprints of plastics bags on the environment and human health, only insisting that they wanted their plastic bags back.
To complicate matters, some businesses have a huge vested interested in the continued production and use of cheap plastic and have cited job losses as a reason to reverse the ban, without proffering an alternative of how to produce environmentally-friendly plastics.
According to Steady Kanyata, Enviromental Management Agency education and publicity manager, the ban on plastics follows the promulgation in March 2010 of the Statutory Instrument 98 on Plastic Packaging and Plastics Bottles Regulations.
Simply put, Statutory Instrument 98 stipulates that plastic for use in Zimbabwe should be more than 30 micrometres or microns, a measure of the thickness of a plastic.
A micron, or micrometre, is one-thousandth of a millimetre (one 25th of a thousandth of a centimetre). A human hair measures about 50 microns across.
Before the ban, most shops in Zimbabwe gave out plastic bags of a flimsy and easily-breakable type that customers could neither reuse nor were anywhere near recommended microns.
According to Masaka, some foreign companies, especially from South Africa — where single-use plastic bags are banned — took advantage of the gap in local environmental laws to engage in a lucrative business exporting flimsy plastic bags to Zimbabwe.
Bio-degradation of plastics can be achieved by enabling microorganisms in the environment to metabolise the molecular structure of plastic films to produce an inert humus-like material that is less harmful to the environment.
The same cannot be achieved with the lightweight, single-use plastic bags that were being dished out in local shops prior to the enactment of the legislation.
Masaka pointed out that his agency uses a gadget called a micrometer screw gauge to measure the microns or micrometers which make up the thickness of plastics and, any shop or manufacturer that is guilty of supplying the banned plastic bags would be liable to a fine of $5 000 dollars while repeat offenders would face legal action.
“Most surveys on illegal dumps show that 99% of waste is plastic. And plastic that is not bio-degradable just accumulates in the ecosystem leading to the clogging of sewers and water reticulation systems. In rural areas, if livestock eat plastic, they die. When it rains, plastic bags can cause flash floods because they clog water drainage systems,” he said.
