{"id":43043,"date":"2017-08-28T09:32:14","date_gmt":"2017-08-28T09:32:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=43043"},"modified":"2017-08-28T09:32:19","modified_gmt":"2017-08-28T09:32:19","slug":"kenya-plastic-bag-ban-comes-force-years-delays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/world-news\/kenya-plastic-bag-ban-comes-force-years-delays.html","title":{"rendered":"Kenya plastic bag ban comes into force after years of delays"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kenya plastic bag ban comes into force after years of delays<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

Kenya plastic bag ban comes into force after years of delays:- A ban on plastic carrier bags has come into force in Kenya, which means that anyone found selling, manufacturing or carrying them could face fines of up to $38,000 or prison sentences of up to four years.<\/span><\/p>\n

The government says the ban will help protect the environment.<\/span><\/p>\n

But manufacturers of the bags have argued that 80,000 jobs could be lost.<\/span><\/p>\n

A court on Friday rejected a challenge to the ban. Kenyans are estimated to use 24 million bags a month.<\/span><\/p>\n

A number of other African countries have outlawed plastic carrier bags, including South Africa, Rwanda and Eritrea.<\/span><\/p>\n

This is the third attempt in the past 10 years to ban plastic bags in Kenya.<\/span><\/p>\n

The BBC’s Anne Soy in Nairobi says that so far many Kenyans appear to support the ban.<\/span><\/p>\n

But there is also some uncertainty about how consumers will adjust to life without polythene bags, which are usually given free-of-charge at retail outlets.<\/span><\/p>\n

Travellers coming into Kenya with duty-free plastic shop bags will be required to leave them at the airport under the new rules, the National Environmental and Management Authority has said.<\/span><\/p>\n

The government had given a six-month window for adjustment which expired on Sunday night.<\/span><\/p>\n

Manufacturers who use polythene to wrap products are exempted from the ban.<\/span><\/p>\n

Most traders have been caught off-guard despite the phased introduction of the ban, The Standard reported.<\/span><\/p>\n

A spot check carried out by the newspaper revealed that most small-scale traders in Nairobi’s Muthurwa market had not obtained alternative packaging materials.<\/span><\/p>\n

In its ruling last week, the High Court dismissed a case filed by two plastic bags importers urging it to drop the ban. The court ruled that environmental concerns were more important than commercial interests.<\/span><\/p>\n

Research in Europe has shown that a paper bag must be used three times to compensate for the larger amount of carbon used in manufacturing and transporting it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Likewise a plastic “bag for life” must be used four times, and a cotton bag must be used 131 times.<\/span><\/p>\n

Source:-\u00a0http:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-africa-41069853<\/span><\/p>\n

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