Wal-Mart Raises the Bar But Africa Still Clogged by Plastics
On this take-life-simple site that I like to visit, one blogger who goes by the name Brani put a petition asking people to promise that they were to shun going out shopping with new plastic bags each time they visited a supermarket.
The petition: “Promise to reuse bag” read: “I will re-use plastic supermarket bags or get a pretty plastic/cotton bag that I can carry everywhere in case I need it but I want 10 other people to do the same.” It attracted 11 more people who made a similar commitment.
Writing from somewhere in the UK, Brani was inspired by documentaries on sea life being swamped with plastic rubbish. That supermarkets are one of the largest contributors to the plastics menace goes without doubt.
In countries with little or no legislation, non biodegradable plastics are choking life out of flora and fauna in urban areas and slum communities are bearing the biggest brunt. In South Africa, plastic bags have been dubbed the “national flower” because so many can be seen flapping from fences and caught in bushes.
A visit to the one-million population Kibera, arguably Africa’s largest, or Mathare Valley across the city of Nairobi, once touted as the “Green City in the Sun”, is an eye-opener to the effect of plastics to the environment.
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A few people, however, are noticing and have started to act, or prompt the government to act.
But news that the Wal-Mart retail chain had ventured into cyberspace to entice more green ideas for its sustainability goals is welcome indeed in the green-savvy community.
To them, sustainability is a whole business concept that revolves around social, economic and environmental practices.
This is demonstrated in their commitment ideals that include reducing green gas emissions, curtailing energy requirements in their 6,600 store facilities both in the US and abroad, cutting on energy consumption, embracing green efficiency in their logistics, reducing package sizes and use of recycled materials, and promoting increased sustainability in their supply chain and land use. Well said. But anything else aside, that is all we’ve got to look at about Wal-Mart.
From Cape Town to Nairobi to Addis Ababa to Cairo, I am yet to see any retain chains (yes, but not as sumptuous like those in the West) that speak so boldly about their green ideals. In Africa, the biggest challenge for such retail operators remain the grocery plastic bag - and this is our focus today. It is heartening that Tanzania has imposed a total ban on plastic grocery bag packaging.
One large chain in Nairobi introduced a bit of environmentally friendly shopping in 2005 and two years later, the Kenyan government banned plastic bag importation or restricted their usage by way of punitive taxation, following in the heels of governments in Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda. According to UNEP, for the last few years, 48 million plastic bags find their way into the Kenyan ecosystem in any given year.
It is estimated that more than 100 million light polythene bags, mostly thinner than 30 microns, are dished out each year in Kenyan supermarkets, translating to more than 4,000 tons of the bags every month according to a study by the National Environmental Management Authority and the state-run Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis.
Some enterprising fellow ought to explore the potentially lucrative business opportunity of introducing bio-degradable supermarket shopping packaging like the ACME reusable bags as more governments and the private sector relent under increased pressure from conservation groups to enforce or embrace more environmentally friendly and sustainable packaging.
Having sustainability and the environment to factor in shopping experience, however, is proving costly for everybody. In Kenya, workers have been laid off as industries struggle to comply with the new regulations that impose a 120% excise tax on plastic packaging. Many plants are forced to retool their production lines or source more expensive packaging materials.
Manufacturers have passed to consumers the extra costs in the production of essential commodities. But a consumer tax to discourage usage of plastic bags has been counter productive because there has been no significant recorded reduction in plastic bag usage by shoppers. Instead, prices have shot up significantly and now experts are turning to the prospect a green levy to protect the environment. Plastic disposal has been identified as the problem and not usage.
A government environmental agency and Nobel laureate, Wangari Maathai’s Green Belt Movement are both agreed that the green levy could be used to clean up the environment, set up recycling systems and waste disposal sites and conduct media campaigns to educate consumers on waste separation at household level.
Lack of stiff legal or financial penalties to discourage smuggling of cheaper but more harmful plastic products and the fact that shoppers in Africa are more receptive to free plastic bags each time they go shopping could be slowing any progress made.
What do you think?
Photo credit: Flickr
Oxo-biodegradable bags, complying with American Standard 6954 are not expensive, and they contain an additive which makes them degrade in a few months leaving no fragments no methane and no harmful residues. They are made from a by-product of oil refining which would otherwise be wasted, so nobody is importing oil to make them.
Bags (complying with EN13432) made from crops are at least 400% more expensive, they are not strong enough, and they emit methane (a serious greenhouse gas) in landfill. It is wrong to use land to grow plastic bags and to drive up the cost of food for the poorest people.
The same applies to growing cotton or jute to make durable bags. These become unhygienic and become a durable form of litter, but they can be made from oxo-bio plastic to last up to 5 years.
Paper bags use 300% more energy to produce, they are not strong enough, and they will also emit methane in landfill
Michael Stephen, Chairman
Symphony Environmental Ltd., UK
Sam, I want to congratulate you on this post. I am a first time visitor and I must say I am impressed with your passion on this subject.
It is deplorable for any country to allow their environment to be choked in the manner of using plastic bags for convenience, either through legislation or lack of it.
We in America are struggling with the same problem and a few conscientious people are beginning to return to the cloth or canvas bags that our grandparents once used. Its funny how we shun what our elders tell us only to return to their ways years later, after the damage is done.
Doing the ‘right thing’ is costly, but the alternative of doing nothing is even more costly.
Michael brought up an interesting alternative in oxo-biodegradable bags (I have not heard of this) that I will definitely look into.
Thank-you for continuing this very important discussion.
A Canadian grocery store chain, “Real Canadian Superstore” (owned and operated by Loblaw Companies in Canada) charges shoppers $0.05 per plastic bag. Is that simply cheap or simply genius? You decide.
Shoppers at RCSS are routinely seen bringing their own bags to the store (either reusing previously bought plastic bags, bringing in their own reusable ones, or bringing in plastic bags from other retailers).
What’s great about this is that people are made to think about the impact that plastic bags have. It’s not just the cost of manufacturing and transportation of the bags (<$0.005 per bag) or that RCSS is making money from selling the bags, it’s that the overuse of plastic bags has an impact on the environment.
The above is an effective way of getting people to change habits because you’re incentivizing them to do so - as opposed to simply advertising “green” initiatives and hoping that they may do so out of the goodness of their hearts.
My $.02…
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Michael, how do cloth bags become unhygienic? Do you not do laundry? I have cloth bags that I have used for years without issue. The number of plastic bags saved is phenomenal. When they only put two or three things in a plastic bag, on the occasion that I have had to use them, you leave with 10 or 12 bags when it would have only used 2 or 3 cloth bags.
Hi Sam and all,
A couple of comments. You mention Walmart’s commitment to the environment and “sustainability”, in the context of Africa, but fail to mention the deleterious effects of international trade policy that Walmart are notorious for (ab)using to their advantage.
I am not trying to criticise your article, it has just made me think (thank you), but I do think environmentalism often ends up with a lot of well-meaning people focusing on a tiny little issue, when there is a big glaring problem right in front of them
“From Cape Town to Nairobi to Addis Ababa to Cairo, I am yet to see any retail chains … that speak so boldly about their green ideals. In Africa, the biggest challenge for such retail operators remain the grocery plastic bag”
See also above.
GDPs per capita (from http://www.joinafrica.com/Country_Rankings/gdp_per_capita.htm):
South Africa = $10,700
Kenya = $1,000
Ehtiopia = < $1,000 (not in top 40)
Egypt = $4,000
The average American spends $4,404 per annum on groceries (from http://www.mdmproofing.com/iym/weblog/2005/06/how-much-grocery-spending.html).
Rather than bans on plastic bags - which have their uses in Africa, until everyone can afford a nice canvas one? - the likes of Walmart could afford to employ someone full-time to go around picking them up!
There is another reason that so many bags are visible in Africa, and that is because of poor waste management systems. My former tutor has spent years working on this problem in Ghana; apparently there are about 3 waste management workers in the entire country!
These issues are more pressing and deserve more attention than they get in the “plastic bags are bad” world of environmentalism.
[To mAineAc,
This article is on Africa. How many Africans do you know that have washing machines?!]