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 from Monday anyone found
selling, manufacturing or carrying them could face
fines of up to $38,000 or prison sentences of up to
four years.
The government says the ban will help protect the
environment.
But manufacturers of the bags have argued that 80,000
jobs could be lost.
A court on Friday rejected a challenge to the ban.
Kenyans are estimated to use 24 million bags a month.
A number of other African countries have outlawed
plastic carrier bags, including South Africa, Rwanda and
Eritrea.
This is the third attempt in the past 10 years to ban
plastic bags in Kenya.
The BBC's Anne Soy in Nairobi says that so far many
Kenyans appear to support the ban.
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.
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.
The government gave a six-month window for
adjustment which expired on Sunday night.
Manufacturers who use polythene to wrap products are
exempted from the ban.
Most traders have been caught off-guard despite the
phased introduction of the ban, The Standard reported .
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.
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.
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.
Likewise a plastic "bag for life" must be used four
times, and a cotton bag must be used 131 times.

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