It will be
illegal to manufacture or use plastic bags in Kenya from September. This
declaration was made by the environment cabinet secretary, Judi Wakhungu. The
government hopes that this move will help to mitigate against the harmful
effects that the bags have been seen to have on the environment. I beg to
differ. I think the ban will cause more harm than good to the environment.
Limited Alternatives
Back in the
village where I grew up, there was virtually no plastic. Stuff like sugar, after
being weighed, was packed in khaki paper bags whose end would then be folded
neatly and stuck on the side with a paper tape. The tape itself was made of
similar paper and the adhesive was made from a sugar solution applied and dried
on one side of a rolled strip. The tape dispenser used to have a dam with a
sponge soaked with water over which the shop keeper would slide the sticky side
of tape so as to activate the adhesive. The whole process of weighing, packing,
and taping up sugar was a ritual which we watched amazement every time we were
sent to the shops. Then; plastic happened and as they say, the rest is history.
I don’t see
us going back to that beautiful, ceremonial, and bio-degradable way of packing
groceries. I also don’t see modern Kenyans, all full of swagger, carrying their
woven sisal or straw baskets to the shops the way we did. If that were to
happen, it would take more than lacklustre declarations by the government with
dates on which everything would go back to the way it was thirty years ago.
Elusive Forest Cover
In 2013, the
then Environment Minister, Noah Wekesa, claimed that the country had a 7%
forest cover and not less than 2% as previously estimated. In February of this
year, Judi Wakhungu, the current environment CS has claimed that Kenya has a
forest cover of 7%, having grown 5.3% from a cover of 1.7% in 2013. The big
question is; who between a Cabinet Secretary and a Minister is more likely to
speak the truth on what the forest cover was in 2013?
This indeterminate
forest cover is expected to provide the alternative to plastic in our vibrant
retail and wholesale industries. Every village shopkeeper and hardworking mama
mboga is supposed to have a stack of environmentally friendly khaki paper bags
to pack our groceries in. I foresee a serious problem of both an inadequate
supply of paper and high cost of such packaging to the extent of it competing
with its own contents.
Depletion of Forests
The expected
sharp increase in demand for paper will obviously have a negative effect on our
‘uncertain’ forest cover. It will make it harder for the government to grow it
to 10% as required by the constitution (this constitution thought of everything!).
The only other alternative to cutting our own trees to make paper is importing
from those countries who took their environmental issues more seriously. In that
case, there will be a serious depletion in the pocket cover of our treasury.
Peculiar Kenyan Habits
It is
properly Kenyan to throw away those things that we no longer have the use of
irrespective of how long we have had them. We throw smoky wrappers after taking
the last bite which is only second from the first and takes place two seconds
after buying the smoky. This results in a garland of plastic wrappers around
every smoky seller’s trolley in town. There are also long ropes of plastic
lining every road in the country, thanks to motorists who, in the interest of
keeping their cars clean, throw their trash out the window. This habit will not
die with the ban on plastic. It will take an environment conscious dimension.
Kenyans can now proudly tell themselves, “At least it’s bio-degradable!” as
they continue littering their highways, footpaths, and other open spaces.
A New Kind of Criminal
When
something gets banned, it does not disappear. It changes status from legal to
contraband. There will probably be a big black market where you will be able to
get your beloved plastic bags. If you get caught, you will probably land in the
same cell as a person caught with bang. At the stroke of midnight on some day
in September, majority of us will become the latest kind of criminal. Police
will search our houses for hoarded plastic and soon afterwards we will be
raising our clasped and cuffed hands and declaring, “If you want my plastic,
you will have to go through me!” to which the police will readily oblige.
No comments:
Post a Comment