{"id":4932,"date":"2019-08-28T10:17:36","date_gmt":"2019-08-28T07:17:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africasustainabilitymatters.com\/?p=4932"},"modified":"2026-01-11T05:30:30","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T05:30:30","slug":"has-kenyas-plastic-bag-ban-worked","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/2019\/08\/28\/has-kenyas-plastic-bag-ban-worked\/","title":{"rendered":"Has Kenya’s Plastic Bag Ban Worked?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By BBC News<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two years ago, Kenya introduced a ban on plastic carrier bags.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Has it worked?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tens of millions of\nplastic bags were handed out in supermarkets every year in Kenya.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They polluted the\nenvironment and clogged up drainage systems contributing to floods in rainy\nseasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A study supported by the\nNational Environmental Management Agency (Nema) found that more than 50% of\ncattle near urban areas were found to have plastic bags in their stomachs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So after years of promising\nto take action, the government made the manufacturing, sale and distribution of\nplastic carrier bags illegal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the ban, the\ngovernment says 80% of the population have stopped using plastic carrier bags.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although this is\nencouraging, some of the alternatives have also been found to be\nenvironmentally damaging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyone found\nmanufacturing, importing or selling a plastic carrier bag could be fined up to\n$40,000 (\u00a332,000) or face a prison sentence of up to four years. Using the\nbanned bags carries a fine of more than $500 or a jail term of up to a year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So far, fines of between\n$500 and $1,500 have been handed out to around 300 people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Others have been sent to\njail, says Keriako Tobiko, Kenya’s environment minister.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year, 18 people who\npleaded guilty in a court in the Kenyan coastal city of Mombasa were fined $300\nor sentenced to eight months in jail for using the bags.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In other cases, first-time\noffenders have been let off without punishment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It is at the\ndiscretion of the courts to decide what penalty they will give. The judge has\nthe discretion depending on the case,” Mamo Mamo, the acting director\ngeneral of Nema, told the BBC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The toughest penalty\nimposed so far has been on a manufacturer who was sentenced to a jail term of\none year without the option of a fine, according to Mr. Mamo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He says the ban is having\na real impact – abattoirs are now finding fewer bags inside cows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There has also been praise\nfrom environmental charities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It is good progress\nif what we see around is anything to go by. Previously, driving from Nairobi to\na place like the Masai Mara you would see plastic bags hanging from trees like\nflowers after being blown away and getting stuck. We don’t see them\nanymore,” says Nancy Githaiga, WWF Kenya’s policy and research manager. Read more>><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By BBC News Two years ago, Kenya introduced a ban on plastic carrier bags. Has it worked? Tens of millions of plastic bags were handed out in supermarkets every year…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4933,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[101],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4932"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4932\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}