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Banned plastic bags still serious problem
2007-03-07 09:15:53
By Austin Beyadi
The National Environmental Management Council yesterday embarked on a special operation to inspect the implementation of the ban on plastic bags, disregarded in some urban centres.
The council said the aim was to see whether the bags are still manufactured and used despite the ban imposed by the government in October last year.
A team of NEMC officials made impromptu inspections in some factories and shops in Dar es Salaam, and at least three shops were found selling the bags.
The government banned the manufacture, importation, sale, purchase and use of plastic bags of less than 30 microns (about 0.03millimeters) in thickness.
NEMC acting director general Bonaventure Baya told reporters in the city before the operation went into gear yesterday that they had learnt that some people, companies and institutions still make, import, distribute, sell and buy plastic bags of the types banned.
But he admitted that in some places people have stopped using the bags and gone for other options, mainly used newspapers and magazines as well as paper bags that are believed to be more disposable and therefore friendlier to the environment.
He said the use of thin plastic bags is effectively a criminal offence and any one caught involved in any activities set to make the ban fail would be brought to justice.
Conviction calls for a fine ranging from 50,000/- to 50m/- or a jail term ranging from three to seven months or both fine and imprisonment.
At a popular supermarket in Kariakoo, the NEMC team found the banned plastic bags widely in use.
All the bags were white and not black as was previously the case but their thickness was the same less than 0.03 millimeters outlawed.
A Kariakoo shopkeeper found selling thin plastics said that he bought them from Morogoro and Tanga, where he claimed they are being manufactured.
`We have given traders seven days to get rid of and stop selling the banned bags. Anyone acting to the contrary will face the strong arm of the law,` warned Baya.
He was repeating a warning given several times but largely ignored since the ban was imposed and would not say what made him confident that things would work out better this time around.
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