By Jane Nafula
Senior government officials have called for a ban on the production and usage of single-use plastics, including polythene bags with less than 30 microns. Mr Sam Cheptoris, the minister of Water and Environment, said a ban of plastics will guard the country against poor disposal of plastics that continue to have a huge toll on the environment as well as human and animal health.
“If you had moved around the out- skirts of Kampala, you would see very many plastic carrier bags which we have been fighting to ban, but the manufacturers have been fighting back with all their mighty,” the minister told delegates who are attending the ongoing meeting at Sheraton Hotel, Kampala to negotiate the formulation a global treaty indented to check plastic pollution.
“Despite the gravity of plastic pollution, Uganda like other African countries lack a comprehensive mechanism, capacity and resources to manage plastic pollution. The manufacturers were saying that they would collect all plastic bags and recycle them but this was just a lie. It is better to manage at the source than to go round collecting all that is produced, “the minister said.
The world through the United Nations Assembly, constituted a committee to negotiate legally binding treaty to control plastic pollution globally. Countries are now undertaking negotiations to develop this treaty.
