|
’Darling’ plastic becomes silent killer of man and environment
2006-01-09 08:28:17
By Judica Tarimo
With a tendency akin to love, urban residents in the country prefer plastic bags to other packaging materials for carrying their shopping. But the popular bags are a big threat to health and the environment.
In fast growing cities like Dar es Salaam, Arusha, Mwanza and Mbeya the bags have disrupted the drainage system and are threatening to cause more harm.
Owing to their cheap price, plastic bags have created an irresponsible culture among urban dwellers, leading to dumping the bags anywhere.
The careless habit is creating heaps of thousands of tons of plastic waste every year.
Plastic lasts long and does not decompose.
If buried, plastic materials could block the natural supply of air and water to the soil, affecting plant life directly and indirectly.
In some parts of Dar es Salaam and other major cities, plastic bags have blocked sewage and draining systems. At times they reduce water retention capacity of the soil and so affect the water table.
’Plastic has not spared the animals, as millions of mammals and birds, reptiles and fish are reported to have been killed every year by the ingestion of plastic bags,’ said one environmental expert, Silvan Mng’anya.
Mng’anya, who is the Honorary Secretary of the Agenda For Environment and Responsible Development, said when animals consume plastic bags, the alimentary canal gets blocked and the stomach becomes bloated.
As a result, the animal stops eating and subsequently dies of starvation.
Plastic bags dumped into the Ocean and small rivers kill millions of marine animals and birds annually.
Recent global studies show that about 1000 marine animals die every year from the ingestion of plastic bags, and some marine mammals, which have reached the verge of extinction, are further threatened by plastics.
A survey conducted by The Guardian has revealed that, owing to poor management systems, disposal of plastic bags is a big headache to the environment and health of residents in the three municipal councils—Kinondoni, Temeke and Ilala.
’People throw away plastic bags just like…but this is very dangerous, because plastic bags pose a great threat to the environment and human health,’ said Mng’anya.
The survey also discovered that plastic bags are among packaging materials commonly used in households across Dar es Salaam, a city with a fast increasing population size and expanding commercial and other economic activities.
’But there is no proper mechanism of disposing of plastic bags. People use and throw them anywhere.
Municipal councils are quiet; nobody is taking trouble to consider possible implications of plastic bags,’ said Agenda official.
Most of the Dar es Salaam residents burn plastic bags in open spaces.
Although the waste disappears physically, by products of burning waste including the medical (hospital) waste are hazardous and detrimental to animal and human health.
Apart from polluting the environment, plastic bags subject people to health problem.
It could cause a cancer that results in death. The bags can also cause reproductive failure and dysfunction, and damage of central nervous system.
They can also suppress the immune system and may increase asthma problems, birth and development defects and behavoural problems from conception etc.
Should plastic bags be banned completely? This is a big question, which triggered heated debates and discussions between the government and other stakeholders.
But environmental experts are confident that in spite of all the problems related to plastics, they can be produced without much harm to the environment.
Stakeholders have proposed to the government to develop a legal mechanism that compiles plastics bags producers and traders to establish recycling plants to reduce circulation and distribution of hazardous waste.
’We need laws that would compel plastic producers to ensure that the plastic bags that have been sold out are brought back for recycling,’ said Mng’anya.
The expert also advised the government to introduce paper bags and baskets and other reusable materials to replace plastic bags.
’Before phasing out plastic bags completely, the government has to introduce alternative materials,’ said Mng’anya.
The proposed legal frameworks, according to some stakeholders, should force supermarkets and other business establishments to package their goods in paper bags or any reusable materials and not plastic bags.
This move must go hand in hand with massive and serious campaigns to sensitize and educate the public on the advantage of using paper bags to abandon the environmentally unfriendly plastic bags.
’All stakeholders—media, government, Non-Governmental Organizations, local government leaders and ordinary people— have to use multiple-stakeholders approach under which everybody must play a role instead of leaving the task to the government alone,’ said Agenda Secretary General.
To enhance efficiency in the implementation strategy, ordinary people down to the households’ levels need education on how to separate plastic bags from waste to facilitate waste collection and sorting exercise.
Gaston Makwembe, Dar es Salaam City Council Public Relations Officer, said stakeholders must design collection points and equipment from where the plastic bags would be disposed for recycling.
’That’s where the laws that would require the plastic producers, industrialists and business people to develop recycling systems come in,’ he said, adding that extensive education is needed to educate people to do away with plastic bags and use paper bags and other reusable materials.’
It is suggested that local government leaders should cooperate with wananchi to ensure that plastic bags used by people were dumped into the special equipment as proposed by stakeholders.
There are those who suggested that certain fees should be introduced in order to collect enough money for paying groups and private organizations contracted to collect the waste from the designated points.
’It will make sense if the government would impose high taxes on plastic imports and use the money to pay people involved in the exercise of collecting plastic bags,’ said one of the environmental stakeholders.
Recently, the government of Tanzania expressed its determination to ban plastic bags on the grounds that they were hazardous to the environment.
Last year, the Finance Minister, Basil Mramba imposed high taxes on plastic imports in a move to discourage their use and reduce circulation and distribution of plastic materials in the country.
But plastic manufacturers and related organisations rejected the decision as unfair, saying that not all plastics products were dangerous to the environment and human health.
’You cannot impose a complete ban on all plastics. The government should ban small-sized plastic bags, because big plastics have no problem, as they can be recycled,’ said one of the plastic manufacturers.
Despite their effects on environment and human life, environmental experts asked the government to be patient and find out alternatives to plastic bags before imposing a complete ban.
Scientists around the world are still struggling to find environmentally friendly ways to dispose off plastic.
Environmental studies shed light into the experiments conducted by Japanese scientists who developed two types of environment friendly plastic.
Photodegradable plastic is based on photolysis or chemical reactions triggered by light.
|
