Nema turns the heat on manufacturers over non-woven bags

Nema has turned the heat on manufacturers for compromising the quality of non-woven carrier bags.

National Environment Management Authority director general Geoffrey Wahungu, in an exclusive interview, told the Star that the bags were initially strong and large.

"They could be used multiple times, and we had no problem with that. However, the gauge, tensile strength, the size and quality of the bags have deteriorated within a year," he said.

The government banned the use, manufacture and importation of plastic bags used for commercial and household packaging on August 28, 2017.

Following the ban, non-woven polypropylene bags flooded the Kenyan market.

The non-woven bags were, however, of low gauge and poor quality and could not be used multiple times. Most are disposed of after a single use.

Nema said single usage of non-woven bags will eventually lead to heavy environmental consequences.

This is coupled by the lack of the requisite infrastructure to sustainably manage non-woven bags.

Nema this year gave notice of up to March 31 to stop further manufacture, importation and supply of non-woven polypropylene bags until the Kenya Bureau of Standards gazettes a measure that will inform the quality of non-woven bags.

The Authority was to start a crackdown on non-woven and unauthorised plastics on April 1. However, the court issued a temporary order suspending the ban, following two urgent applications by petitioners who were aggrieved by the notice.

Wahungu said manufacturers keen on making a killing following the plastics ban quickly imported machines that flooded the Kenyan market.

"We saw that it was going to be a problem if we do not act. What we did was not ban. We said look, we need to stop and think of where we are going with them, because we were going back to the same root of plastic bags."

Wahungu said they are engaging players as everybody acknowledges the problem.

"It is their right to go to court," he said.

Wahungu said they are vigilant about plastics that are still coming into the country.

"We have opened surveillance stations on all our border posts. They are in Namanga, Lunga Lunga, Mwatate, Busia, Moyale and Bungoma, where we are monitoring inflows," he said.

Wahungu said the authority's biggest problem is Uganda and Tanzania.

He said the announcement by Tanzania that plastics will be banned in the country later in the year "was exciting news."

Wahungu said he has been talking to the environment director general in Uganda on issues related to plastics, particularly in Busia and Malaba.

"These guys benchmark with us. We have what we call East Africa Network for Environment Compliance."

Wahungu said the network constitutes director generals from Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania and compliance and enforcement directors.

"Each year we meet. But when we are not meeting, directors and director generals  talk about standards. This is a uniformity of standards, we do not want non-uniform standards," he said.

Wahungu said discharge standards should be uniform as water bodies are shared by these countries.

Cross-border movement of hazardous waste are also being monitored between neighbouring countries, he said.