Political will needed to ban plastic bags

The spectre of plastic waste strewn over empty spaces and in waterways in our cities, towns and villages remains a blot on the image of the country.

Official figures estimate that only two per cent of the about 22,000 tonnes of plastic waste generated yearly in the country are recycled, with the remaining 98 per cent finding place with waste management companies who send them to landfill sites and into drains, water bodies and other open places, including the streets.

Clearly, the development fits well into the oft-used phrase, “lack of political will”, which has been the bane of this country in its desire to attain the expected development.

Politicians do not have the will power to take certain decisions on the environment, either because such decisions could derail their electoral fortunes or the decisions would conflict with their personal interests.

Popularity

Plastic bags are very popular in the country; apart from their usage in carrying goods, people even eat from them, but after their usage, they are thrown into empty spaces without recourse to the environmental consequences.

As a result, plastic bags are found in abundance daily and the impact, nevertheless, is terribly significant.

The biggest problem associated with plastic bags is that they take hundreds of years to decompose.

Over the years, environmentalists in the country have made a case for their ban as plastic bags do not only pollute the environment but also block watercourses and destroy aquatic life.

Environmentalist Nana Dwomoh Sarpong, for instance, has questioned why successive governments have not had the wherewithal to ban plastic bags or at worst apply the polluter’s principle, which says  producers of pollution should bear the cost of managing it.

First attempt

In July 2015, then President John Dramani Mahama warned that Ghana might be forced to go the Rwanda way by banning the use of plastics if the polluting effects of the non-biodegradable substances were not controlled.

He stated: “If producers of plastics don’t do something about it, then we may have to go the Rwandan way; Rwanda banned the use of plastics, nobody uses plastics and yet they are surviving.”

The signal coming from the First Gentlemen of the land then brought some measure of hope. What even bolstered the hopes of many Ghanaians who cared about the environment was that days after the President’s statement, the then Minister of Environment, Science Technology and Innovation, Mr Mahama Ayariga, announced that there would be a partial ban on plastics in Ghana in two weeks.
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Resistance

However, the government’s attempt to ban plastic bags was met with fierce reaction from the Environmental Service Providers Association who argued among other things the dire consequences such a decision would bring about, citing closure of their businesses and loss of about 80,000 jobs as some of the expected fallouts.

“The association is of the view that banning the use of plastics is not the right way to deal with the plastic waste menace that the country is currently grappling with. Our argument is hinged on the fact that sachet water has for instance become the most common source of drinking water for the majority of Ghanaians.”

“Ghana's transition from selling water in plastic cups to sachet water has significantly reduced incidences of communicable diseases. Any decision to ban plastics must, therefore, take cognisance of the fact that sachet water has become not just a basic necessity for homes but is also generating employment for hundreds of Ghanaians,” a statement issued by the association said in part.

The government capitulated under the load of verbal protests from the industry players and eventually abandoned the plan, only to propose a law that would compel plastic manufacturers to turn to biodegradable plastics.

Typical of Ghana, the expected  ban only remained on paper and today the problem has compounded.

A number of African countries have taken the bold decision to ban the use of plastic bags to protect their environment and it is a shame that Ghana, with the claim of being the gateway to West Africa, has taken a back seat in this all-important journey.

The claim by Ghanaian manufacturers that jobs will be lost when a ban is placed on plastic bags cannot be a strong defence.

When Kenya faced a similar situation as manufacturers protested that at least 80,000 jobs would be lost if a ban was imposed on plastic bags, the government stuck to its position.

Alternatives abound for manufacturers to turn their attention to, which can even create larger number of jobs for the people, and it is important business entities and the government place premium on that.