Plastic bags waste[photo/news.xinhuanet.com/]The ban on production and use of plastic bags remains one of the biggest economic and, indeed, environmental decisions by the government last year. First, it looked like a punishment to shoppers and retailers, but months later the environmental dividend is beginning to emerge.
Our streets, recreational places, and residential areas are looking cleaner though more work needs to be done to clear a number of dumping sites. Give it a few years and Kenya could become one cleanest and greenest countries in Africa.
The policy has been an effective way of dealing with the eyesore that had been created by polyethylene bags strewn all over the place. These bags made a huge portion of trash in households and businesses and caused havoc on the environment. Enforcement has been easy. There has been strong public goodwill.
It is surprising how most Kenyans were choking under plastics quietly yet kept using and disposing of them anywhere, anyhow. Well, that is as far as the good news goes.
There are some loose ends in this exercise that need to be tightened to ensure proper transition into a no-plastic bags regime. Immediately the ban came into force, different types of non-polyethylene bags emerged from cotton-wool to Manila and other materials in between.
Even retailers started stocking these alternative bags for sale and their entrances are swamped with hawkers of these “environment-friendly” bags. Some of these bags are very feeble and often tear at only half capacity.
One bag can barely be used more than thrice. This is not only a huge expense on consumers but could also exacerbate the very problem of environmental degradation we are trying to solve. Most of these bags are not exactly biodegradable, the biggest reason that led to a rejection of polyethylene bags. What was the logic behind banning polythene then?