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BBC News, 11.10.06
Zanzibar's ban on the import and production of plastic bags has come into effect.
Authorities on the semi-autonomous Tanzanian islands say discarded bags damage the marine environment and hurt its crucial tourism industry. But the BBC's Ally Saleh in Zanzibar says many people are sceptical about whether the ban will be enforced.
BBC News
Botswana Press Agency, 11.7.06
A ban on the use of plastic bags will effect on February 1, forcing shoppers to either provide their own bags or pay for the new-style thicker recyclable bags.
Wildlife, environment and tourism minister Mr Kitso Mokaila said in an interview that the new law aims to protect the environment.
Plastic waste is the most visible and a major concern because it has environmental implications and there is need for us to manage the problem, he said.
Republic of Botswana
SomaliNet, 4.7.06
Tanzania's Vice president Ali Mohamed Shein revealed late Saturday that Tanzanian government has banned plastic bags and containers and ordered people to stop farming and logging on Africa's highest mountain, among other environmental measures.
Speaking on state owned television late Saturday, Vice President Ali Mohamed Shein said the government's ban on the importation, manufacture and sale of plastic bags, plastic drinking water and juice containers will take effect in October so that manufacturers and importers have time to find alternatives.
"The ban of plastic bags and containers is necessary to protect our rapid degrading environment," said Shein.
http://somalinet.com/news/world/Somalia/2220
BBC News - UK, 1.17.06
Rwanda is cracking down on the use of plastic bags by shoppers, the environment minister has told the BBC.
Drocella Mugorewera said that anyone using plastic bags is breaking a recent law on environmental protection aimed at cleaning up cities.
She says that people must use paper bags instead. Some shoppers, however, prefer cheaper reusable plastic bags.
Some Rwandans accuse government militias of using the law to steal goods being carried in plastic bags.
One woman told the BBC's Geoffrey Mutagoma in the capital, Kigali, that local defence staff had thrown the glasses she was carrying in a plastic bag onto the ground.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4619748.stm
Independent Online - Cape Town,South Africa, 1.15.06
The government's initiative to reduce the number of plastic bags used in the country has been a success, according to Bill Naude, the executive director of the Plastics Federation of South Africa.
"The purpose was to decrease the number of bags and that has been very successful," Naude said...
Rantsadi Moatshe, a director in the department of environmental affairs, said surveys conducted by the department showed a 50 percent drop in the purchase of bags by consumers. "This implies that the regulations have been successful in reducing the number of plastic bags which originally could have reached consumers," he said.
He said that the plastic bag manufacturing industry, which had taken a huge knock resulting in the closure of businesses and the loss of more than 500 jobs, was slowly starting to recover.
"Volumes of plastic bags being produced are growing but they are nowhere near the levels at which we were before the laws came into effect," he said.
http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=14&art_id=vn
Republic of Botswana - Gaberones,Botswana, 8.26.05
SELEBI/PHIKWE In a move considered to have a positive impact on the environment, authorities in Selebi-Phikwe intend to phase out plastic shopping bags.
Some supermarkets, consumers, government and council officials have embraced the gesture by the Selebi-Phikwe Multi-Sectoral Anti-Litter Committee as they view it as a way of reducing litter and conserving the environment.
Blessing Mutangabende, the councils principal health inspector, said the idea is a pilot project for now but did not rule out the possibility of it being permanent considering that it is getting a positive response from all sections of the society.
The anti-litter committee that comprises Selebi-Phikwe Town Council, BCL, non-governmental organisations, government departments, private companies and ward development associations, resolved during its meeting of July 12, this year to ban the issuing of plastic bags at major shopping centres until December 31, this year.
http://www.gov.bw/cgi-bin/news.cgi?d=20050826&i=SPhikwe_authoriti
TravelVideo.TV, 8.23.05
On 17th June 2005, a trading dhow with engine failure drifted onto the reef and sank 500 meters offshore from Watamu village beach on the Kenyan coast and changed the face of the beautiful pristine beaches in the area. The bulk of the cargo was 2 tons of small, thin, transparent plastic bags, packed in large plastic fiber sacks, which split open, allowing the contents to spread. The bags washed ashore immediately due to strong winds and high tides in their uncountable thousands, possibly millions.
Most of the bags quickly filled with sand and became densely embedded up to 1ft deep in the inter-
tidal beach within the Watamu Marine Reserve, with many still remaining in the shallow lagoon waters. The local marine conservation organization Local Ocean Trust / Watamu Turtle Watch reported that the Watamu lagoon was inundated with the bags, WTW volunteers likening it to “swimming through a plastic bag oil slick.” The immediate threat was to the marine life, particularly sea turtles that will eat the bags mistaking them for jellyfish and to corals and other marine creatures that were in danger of being smothered by the plastic. WTW soon realized that they had a large-scale environmental crisis on their hands.
The plastic bags had covered more than two kilometers of beach. The threat to the marine environment was not the only concern. The Watamu community is dependent on tourism as the major source of employment and income. The beautiful Watamu beaches are part of a protected UN Biosphere Reserve attracting thousands of tourists annually. The plastic pollution on the beaches would surely have a negative impact on the tourist trade.
http://travelvideo.tv/news/more.php?id=6433_0_1_0_M
New York Times, 4.6.05
Discarded plastic bags are clogging streams, choking amimals and piling up into little mountains of disease all over Africa; litter has reached critial mass in Kenya; bags are so thin they cannot be reused, leading to frequent introduction into nature; experts say they remain thout breaking down for 1,000 years; recent study estimates more than 100 million such bags are handed out each year in Kenyan supermarkets...
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F30815F83D5A0C748C
News24.com, 4.3.05
Asmara - Parts of Eritrea once littered by a sea of flimsy shopping bags are being cleaned up thanks to a new law that entered into force in January to help the Horn of Africa country protect nature.
In the capital Asmara and other outlying regions, the bags have been replaced by the cotton and nylon and Eritreans have no choice but to adapt to instead.
Since January, "those who import, produce, distribute or sell plastic bags are fined", said Wolde Yohannes, the head of environment wing in the ministry of land, water and environment…
http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/News/0,,2-11-1447_1671642,00.
Environmental Data Interactive Exchange, 3.9.05
Kenya should ban the use of flimsy plastic bags and impose a hefty levy on thicker ones to rid the country of an increasing environmental and health menace, a report by the Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis (KIPPRA) has found.
Over two million plastic bags, a lot of which are so thin they can only be used once before being thrown away, are now handed out every year in Nairobi alone, the report says…
http://www.edie.net/news/news_story.asp?id=9618&channel=0
Environmental News Network, 2.24.05
…Supermarkets alone hand out nearly 100 million plastic bags in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi, home to 3 million people where only 25 percent of the 1,500 tons (1,650 U.S. tons) of solid waste generated daily is currently collected, according to the study by the United Nations Environment Program, the National Environment Management Authority and Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis…
…A ban on bags less than 30 microns thick, a tax on thicker ones and raising consumer awareness on the environmental costs of plastic bags should be used to reduce their use and provide funds for alternative, more environmental-friendly carriers such as cotton and sisal bags, according to the report…
http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=7204
Prensa Latina, 2.23.05
Those useful and popular plastic bags you get when shopping were harshly criticized by experts attending a forum of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) in Nairobi, Kenya…
They sustain those containers, discarded everywhere, in cities as in rural areas, are capable of blocking drains, strangle animals, sea fauna and contaminate soils until they gradually make them useless.
The vice minister of this sphere and Nobel prize winner 2004, Wangari Mathaai, asserts discarded plastic bags provide a potential focus for malaria-transmitting mosquitoes…
http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID=%7BDCA0E02B-99F2-4797-BD9
Times of Oman, 2.1.05
The society...plans to organise ‘BYOB’ — Bring Your Own Bag...A campaign which aims at educating the public about the harms of plastic bags.
http://www.timesofoman.com/newsdetails.asp?newsid=3938&pn=local
The Scotsman - Edinburgh, Scotland, UK, 11.6.04
KENYA'S Nobel Peace Prize winner, Wangari Maathai, said yesterday she will launch a drive to rid the east African country of plastic bags because they are choking the environment.
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=1282012004
BBC News, 10.4.04
Thousands of Rwandans have taken the day off work to pick up plastic bags as part of a government attempt to clean up the environment... Shops have been banned from giving plastic bags to their customers and police are reportedly stopping plastic-bag users in the street.
The government has always been keen to keep Rwanda clean and correspondents say the capital, Kigali, is much cleaner than other African cities, where thin blue plastic bags can been seen in fields and on trees fluttering in the wind.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3714126.stm
BBC News, 5.9.03
South Africa is making the thin and flimsy plastic bag illegal. Known as the country's "national flower" because they litter streets - retailers handing out the bags now face a fine of 100,000 rand ($13,800) or a 10-year jail sentence.
The legislation means shoppers will either have to take bags with them when they go shopping...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/3013419.stm
Reuters, 5.10.02
The Environment and Tourism Minister of South Africa ironically named the plastic shopping bag the country's "national flower" because it is such a ubiquitous eyesore. The bags are “adorning” trees, bushes, and fences across South Africa, renowned for its scenic beauty and wilderness. The minister announced the plastics industry had been given 12 months to phase out the thin plastic shopping bags handed out free in stores and replace them with thicker ones. Thicker means more expensive. The strategy is to make disposable plastic bags uneconomical for retailers to giveaway, and to encourage shoppers to reuse bags.
Sorry! Article no longer available.
The Star (South Africa), 1.8.00
The best way to rid South Africa of the scourge of discarded plastic shopping bags - dubbed the new "national flower" - is for retailers to charge consumers for the bags directly.
So says University of Cape Town scientist Dr Peter Ryan, who has researched the issue of plastic pollution, and particularly the impact of plastic on the coastal and marine environments, for several years.
Sorry! Article no longer available.
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