Green lobby group calls for ban on plastic bottles
Jared Okong'o, 35, with heaps of plastic containers awaiting to be transported to Nairobi for recycling. PHOTO | JACOB OWITI | NATION MEDIA GROUP.
What you need to know:
- Plastic bags are the main containers for packaging items in supermarkets across the country and are also used by grocers.
- Manufacturers have claimed that the ban would adversely affect their businesses and the economy in general and cited a loss of over 60,000 jobs in the manufacturing sector.
An environmental lobby group wants Environment and Natural Resources Cabinet Secretary Judi Wakhungu to ban the manufacture and use of plastic bottles alongside polythene bags in September.
Active Environmental Team (AET) said they supported the government ban on polythene bags but added that it should not allow the manufacture of any plastics at all.
“When we talk of harmful effects that plastics pose to the environment, even bottles are included,” said Mr Benson Wemali, the group’s coordinator, in an interview in Mombasa.
“It does not make sense to ban bags and leave bottles, which have an even worse environmental impact.”
Plastic bags are the main containers for packaging items in supermarkets across the country and are also used by grocers.
GRACE PERIOD
The government announced the ban in a notice published in February, giving manufacturers six months to comply with a five-year grace period granted in 2012.
“It is notified to the public that the Cabinet Secretary for Environment and Natural Resources has with effect from 6 months from the date of this notice banned the use, manufacture and importation of all plastic bags used for commercial and household packaging,” the Cabinet Secretary said in the notice published on February 28.
The notice stated that the banned plastic bags fall in two categories—carrier bags and flat bags.
Manufacturers have claimed that the ban would adversely affect their businesses and the economy in general and cited a loss of over 60,000 jobs in the manufacturing sector.
GIVE EXCUSES
However, Mr Wemali, a former enforcement officer with the National Environmental Management Authority (Nema), said manufacturers should not give excuses of job losses when the ban comes into effect.
“The dangers of plastic use far outweigh the benefits,” said Mr Wemali. “If you look at the menace plastics pose to marine ecosystems in the country, including Lake Naivasha, where flamingos are dying after ingesting the materials, it is clear there is an imminent threat.
“In the Indian Ocean, turtles, whales and fish are especially vulnerable because, once ingested, the material can interfere with food digestion or prevent the animal from floating.”
The group’s chairman, Mr Japhet Kithi, asked Kenyans to be conscious of the environment. He added that shoppers should not view the ban as an inconvenience and that its success will depend on their goodwill.
“Kenyans should understand that plastics do not decompose and, once manufactured, they remain in this state for hundreds of years,” said Mr Kithi. “Plastic creates toxic pollution at every stage of its existence—manufacture, use and disposal.”
He added that there was also a need to sensitise Kenyans on the ban.
