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NEMC `baffled` over banned plastic bags
2007-09-18 09:54:59
By Njonanje Samwel
The National Environmental Management Council said yesterday that it was baffled seeing plastic items whose manufacture, importation, distribution, sale and use the government banned a year ago still in widespread supply countrywide.
The items in question include plastic bags with a thickness of 0.03mm or less, whose ban the environmental watchdog now says is all but defied.
NEMC Deputy Managing Director Bonaventure Baya said the problem has become an especially hard nut to crack, with most importers, manufacturers, suppliers and consumers defying the ban with impunity.
``Few of those dealing in or using plastic bags and related goods have demonstrated willingness to respect the government directive.
Many continue to manufacture, import, market and use the restricted plastic bags as if there is no ban,`` he observed.
He said a recent inspection exercise by the council in a random sample of plastic industries in different parts of the country found that the banned plastic bags were still being manufactured in large quantities contrary to the government`s directive.
``We were shocked to find huge amounts of plastic bags in the industries we inspected. This is clear and conclusive evidence that the banned items are still produced in bulk,`` Baya told a news conference in Dar es Salaam yesterday.
NEMC`s inspection of over 30 plastic industries was ``strategically designed to spot dishonest businesspeople and industries manufacturing the plastic bags in contravention of the government ban``, he added.
He named some of the industries visited as Omar Packaging Limited, Saafa Plastics, Binfijaa/ Kariakoo Bazaar, Centaza Plastics and International Plastics Limited.
The council discovered that some industries had changed the colour of the banned plastic bags and splashed them with attractive catchphrases like `Keep your city clean` as a ploy to hoodwink consumers and surveillance teams.
``NEMC has frozen all stocks of the banned plastic bags in the respective industries. We took the measure to prevent the items from filtering into the market and are working on the modalities of destroying them,`` explained Baya.
He described recent hikes in taxes and levies on plastic materials as well as public education and awareness campaigns as some of the practical measures that could kick harmful plastic bags from the market.
The NEMC official added: ``Unscrupulous importers of the products still pose a serious challenge to the implementation of many of the strategies we have been devising, with a view to phasing out the items.``
The council’s remarks follow a survey by The Guardian that confirmed that locally made and imported plastic bags banned last year were still in abundance all over the country, with filtering in clandestinely.
Most people contacted for our survey said dishonest importers and retailers were capitalising on laxity at some territorial border points to sneak into the country with the banned items.
However, there were also charges that `panya` (unofficial) routes were mainly to blame for the problem.
Some respondents in Dar es Salaam said fraudulent traders have been using villages in Indian Ocean shoreline areas like Bagamoyo, Mbweni, Ununio and Kunduchi as entry points for contraband destined for mainland Tanzania markets.
Other respondents said big dealers were behind the importation of the restricted plastic bags, recommending that the government take firmer action to arrest a trend they saw throwing the national economy out of gear.
The NEMC official appealed to the public to cooperate with the government and other relevant institutions in efforts to end the manufacture, circulation and use of the banned plastic bags, saying they posed an obvious danger to the environment.
``People could assist the authorities concerned with tip-offs on syndicates, networks and individuals bent on perpetrating the danger,`` he said.
The 2004 Environmental Management Act, which became operational on July 2005, provides for a fine ranging between 50,000/- and 50,000,000/- or three months to seven years imprisonment or both for anyone found guilty of manufacturing, importing or circulating the banned plastic bags.
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