Shoppers to Help End Plastic Menace -Bill

Shoppers within Nairobi County will have to pay for the plastic bags they use to shop if the proposed Nairobi County Plastic Control Bill 2016 will be enacted into law.

The Bill states that retailers will not be allowed to provide consumers with recycled non-biodegradable plastics free of charge to be used for carrying shopping. Such bags will have to be paid for.

The Bill further states that the relevant departments that are in charge of manufacture and use of such plastic bags will be required to come up with prescribed prices depending on the quality and size of the bags. The assigned prices will cater for waste management, also encourage re-use and minimize on the rate at which plastic carry bags will be generated.

The Bill will apply to the entire retail chain including supermarkets, large stores, small corner shops and grocery stores. Furthermore, manufactures of these plastic bags have been directed to strictly follow the set standards by the Kenya Bureau of Standards

Nairobi residents are being asked to consider other alternative means of carrying and packaging commodities other than the use of plastic bags as a way controlling environmental pollution and helping conserve the same environment. People are also discouraged from disposing non-degradable plastic wastes in public places, drains and sewers so as to restore and maintain clean environments within the county of Nairobi.

The issue of plastic bags has for a long time been a problem not only in the county of Nairobi, but to Kenya. They constitute the biggest challenge to solid waste management in Nairobi, the capital city of Kenya., which is home to over three million people. These bags are ingested by livestock, thus endangering their health and even causing death. They also choke soils and are slow bio-degraders.

Since plastic bags are cheap and thus can easily be accessed, this has been among the reasons for their misuse. Rapid increase in population and improvements in quality of life, have also aggravated the problems of solid waste generation. Such have forced the county of Nairobi to put a lot of capital investments and operational strategies for the purposes of collection, transportation, and disposal of solid wastes. Delimiting factors such as limited financial resources have made it imperative to replace the existing and hoc methods employed in solid waste management and planning.

Most of the plastic bags produced are too thin and fragile to be re-used. This characteristic makes them be littered everywhere which has become a serious problem. Littering of plastic bags is associated with numerous environmental problems like causing visual pollution that affects such sectors as tourism. Also, plastic wastes block gutters and drains creating serious storm water problems and in the rainy seasons they cause flooding.

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