Through a gazette notice some months ago by Prof. Judy Wakhungu, the Cabinet Secretary for Environment, the government announced a total ban on the use, manufacture and import of all plastic bags, ready to take effect in September this year.
Kenyans then took to social media to applaud the move by the government to ban plastic bags used for commercial and household packaging terming it as a great move to curb the plastic bag menace.
Plastic Carrier Bags Ban: Please refer to The Kenya Gazette Notice of March 14th 2017 @NemaKenya @Environment_Ke #PlasticBagsBan pic.twitter.com/kjQvfXeh08
— Prof. Judi Wakhungu (@JudiWakhungu) March 15, 2017
Kenya will become the 10th country to curb the plastic menace with Rwanda showing numerous success with the ban.
Plastic bags are an infamous problem in Nairobi. They clog drainage system, litter the streets and are a menace to the beauty that is the city.
The Kenyan government is attempting to ban their use from August – with implications for businesses from supermarkets to recyclers with the ban effect taking place from the 1st of September but are we really prepared for it?
This isn’t the first time the East African nation has tried to do this and the directive comes about 10 years after the first attempt. The first attempt failed, primarily because of a lack of consistent follow up on the agreed implementation plan.
What really needs to be done
Majority of the Kenya’s population use plastic bags in their day-to-day lives. From the mama mboga to the man transporting water to estates who quenches his thirst with a small paper bag of cool waters, it is almost improbable that the government will be able to effectively wean Kenyans off their use of plastic paper bags.
So what measures need to be put in place?
1. The public needs to go through an intense training on how to deal with the ban. With three weeks to go, majority of the population has no remembrance of the ban. There needs to be public trainings, seminars and advertisements on every platform that will help the public get rid of the remaining plastic bags in households and how to adjust to this new lifestyle.
2. Changes requiring businesses to comply within the next three weeks, need to be clearly articulated. In order to avoid any uncertainty, new policies and regulations need to be concise about the manner in which they will be executed, which authorities are charged with this execution and the penalties a company will face if they don’t comply with the ban.
3. Alternatives to plastic paper bags should be taking full effect. In Nakumatt supermarkets for example, customers are receiving non bio-degradable bags custom fit for shoppers; which are also not harmful to the environment. The same should also be done on a grassroot level.
A good example is how the Village Market is encouraging people to bring in their old jeans for them to be custom fit to become shopping bags for free. From the 27th of July to the 28th of August at the Village Market Food Court, get out your old jeans to the shopping mall and have them turned into a shopping bag for FREE!
Did you know @VillageMarket is recycling jeans into shopping bags ? @NemaKenya @ConsumersKenya #NoPlasticbagsKe #IsupportBanofplasticbags pic.twitter.com/mBfG3QOAeM
— Kenyan Collective ? (@KenCollective) August 3, 2017
4. A holistic waste management system has to be put in place. With the number of plastic paper bags still in storage, still in the process of manufacture and still in the comfort of our kitchen drawers, the Ministry of Environment, NEMA and other relevant authorities should put in place a system that will be able to recycle these remaining bags effectively. It would be careless for the government to declare the ban without effective methods to recycle the remaining plastic paper bags.
Even as we declare for more clarity on the government’s plan to ban plastic bags, are you personally prepared for this new paper-bag-free lifestyle?
Great move! We need to clean our clogged up drainage channels and have a healthier environment.