AfricaPress-Tanzania: THE National Environment Management Council (NEMC) has warned its officials not to collude in importation and distribution of banned plastic bags from neighbouring countries.
Addressing reporters here yesterday, NEMC Director General Dr Samuel Gwamaka said that unscrupulous officers tasked with enforcing the ban on plastic bags are part of a syndicate that facilitates entry and sale of the bags.
“NEMC staff have a duty of ensuring that the banned plastics do not get into the country; they are not supposed to work with the criminals,” he warned.
He urged the public not to leave the enforcement task to state agencies alone but be good citizens by reporting to authorities any act of importation and sale of plastic carrier bags.
“Everybody has a role to play and one big part each of us can play is to stop using illegal items smuggled into our country through illegal means,” he further stated.
Dr Gwamaka’s comments follow last week’s seizure of a consignment of prohibited tube plastics at Buswelu area in Ilemela district, Mwanza region.
From 1st June 2019 all plastic carrier bags, regardless of their thickness were prohibited from being imported, exported, manufactured, sold, stored, supplied or used in the country.
However, enforcement of this ban, while largely successful on carrier bags, has been facing challenges on the wrappers or tubes that NEMC is still struggling to get off the streets of major cities and towns.
After realizing that tubes were being used largely despite the ban, NEMC issued a statement in November last year giving December 2020 as the deadline for use of plastic wrappers.
NEMC points out that plastic covering has emerged in diverse sizes in local markets and are now being used as carrier bags, implying that the same environmental impact as the banned plastic bags is afoot.
The key issue that raised trouble in regard to this situation is that having plastic packing or covering material in the market is at variance with Regulation 4 (b)(c) of the National Environmental Act (EMA) of 2004, he stated.
The provision imposes a blanket removal of plastic wrapping or packing for commercial products, with the regulation having been made, gazetted and promulgated in order to protect the health and lives of consumers, along with protecting the environment from potential harm posed by the use and disposal of flimsy plastic bags or coverings, he added.
