Prime
Polythene bag manufacturers find equilibrium with environmentalists
Ms Kaboyo (L) and Mr Masanda, show off some of their products at a recent press conference in Kamplala. PHOTO BY ISAAC KASAMANI
After government failure to implement the ban on production of polythene bags commonly known as Kaveera, it now has an option to engage manufacturers in the use of an additive that makes Kaveera environmentally friendly.
A year after the ban was announced, consumers continue to use and litter polythene bags, which are an environmental hazard, as they block drainage systems and degrade the soil by reducing the amount of water flowing into the earth.
According to National Environment Management Authority, appropriately 39,600 tonnes of polythene waste is released into the environment and most of it accumulates in the soil each year in Uganda.
A private company has come up with an additive, which might be one of the crucial solutions to finding a common ground between the environmentalists and the business people.
International Technology Networks Group, a private firm, is in its final stages of unleashing the use of a d2w technology that they say will make the use of Kaveera environmentally friendly.
The additive, which is added during the production process, makes Kaveera weak and can be completely destroyed within 180 days to decompose. However, ordinary plastic bags and packaging can take up to 400 years to degrade when they are improperly discarded.
Mr John Masanda, the director of ITN, recently met Kaveera manufacturers to explain how the d2w is used.
There are 20 factories manufacturing polythene bags in Uganda. The Managing Director of GEF Plastic, Mr Tirup Sing, says the government should opt for recycling the plastic instead of the total ban.
Mr Masanda says that his new product doesn’t only target kaveera but a variety of plastics, including milk packs, mineral water bottles, drinking straws, packets of drinks made in Uganda, woven bags, Coke plastic bottles, and several others, all of which are in big quantities.
The Customer Care Executive ITN Ms Tabitha Kabayo said products like bread wrappers can be made out of the recycled polythene bags. Sectors which have been considered critical by NEMA have been allowed to use polythene bags. These include; milk packaging, export industry especially for fish, tree seedling potting, hospital sanitary bags, waste collection bags, construction industry, items that are hygroscopic and essential items related to life saving drugs.
The Deputy Executive Director of NEMA, Mr Sawra Musoke, said d2w is one of the options they are considering. “They have contacted us and it’s one of the options we are evaluating,” he said.
NEMA says that it is high time other business people turned to other options such as; paper bags, wicker baskets, textile like cotton, sisal among others. The body points out that the government intends to offer incentives to those manufacturers involved in the production of environmentally friendly products.
