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Safer plastic items: China rich in hints
2008-03-15 09:11:04
By Editor
A late January 2008 edition of the Chinese weekly newsmagazine Beijing Review carries an article on the efforts the world`s most populous nation has been making towards striking a balance between economic growth and environmental protection.
The piece dwells on the extent to which China has gone in scaling down the use of non-decaying plastic shopping bags and related items.
Many Tanzanians might be intrigued hearing that the article quotes an upmarket British newspaper as having reported in 2006 that studies by University of Dar es Salaam scientists had come up with alarming revelations on the dangers the use of plastic items can cause.
The scientists are on record as having concluded that inhaling toxic gases emitted by burning plastic materials, dioxins and furans could cause hormonal imbalances in new-born children as well as cancer, impotence, asthma and a myriad other allergies.
There is a standing ban in Tanzania on ultra-thin plastic bags but the market is still saturated with these very items although, admittedly, they are now manufactured, distributed, sold and used a little more clandestinely than previously.
However, the mere fact that such a ban is in place but it is flouted with virtual impunity speaks volumes about the distance we still have to cover before we can justifiably view ourselves as true friends of the environment.
Scientists across the globe concur that the plastic waste burnt in large amounts in dumping grounds is extremely hazardous to human health.
The Chinese weekly reports: ``One way to dispose of plastic garbage is to bury it in the earth. Yet buried plastic takes about 200 years to degrade, during which time the land can no longer be used as farmland since plastic stops plants from absorbing water and nutrition from soil.``
Our country has not reached the stage China is now at of having companies producing plastics that can ``dissolve`` into carbon dioxide and water without residue or totally degradable plastic additives such as starch and calcium carbonate.
For one thing, such environment-friendly plastics would usually cost more to produce than ordinary ones.
Additionally, the foreseeable future promises to see most consumer goods retailers still preferring non-degradable plastic bags to the less durable degradable ones.
That is exactly where the ban Tanzania has in place ought to come in –on condition that there is a water-tight mechanism to ensure that it is effective.
Chinese consumers use about one billion plastic bags every passing day, or between 400,000 and 500,000 tonnes a year, whose production costs at least one million tonnes of oil.
Beijing`s 15 million residents alone discard some 2.3 billion plastic bags and produce 140,000 tonnes of plastic packaging garbage every year.
Tanzania may not be as badly off as China with respect to environmental pollution induced by the widespread use of plastic items but it is already knee-deep in danger.
There are lessons we could learn from China`s experience, including turning to biodegradable plastic goods and ensuring the ban imposed a few years ago really works.
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