Nema has expressed concern over the flooding over of substandard non-woven bags into the Kenyan market.
The authority said the introduction of the non-woven polypropylene carrier bags in the market was meant to replace the banned polythene bags.
However, this has since been misused by traders and manufacturers who have introduced low-quality carrier bags.
“Due to the rising need of the non-woven bags in the market, It has been noted that over time that manufacturers of these bags are producing very ‘low gauge’ poor quality non-woven bags which cannot be used multiple times after but are disposed of after single usage”.
On August 28, 2017, Nema gave clarifications on acceptable alternative options to the plastic carrier bags which were affected by the ban on usage of plastic bags.
Nema has further cautioned that single-usage of these bags will eventually lead to heavy environmental consequences due to poor disposal.
The authority directed all manufacturers, importers, suppliers and users of the non-woven polypropylene bags to stop manufacturing; importing, supplying and using them until Kenya Bureau of Standards issue the alternative quality non-woven bags to be used.
