The Citizens Environmental and Social Concern (CESCo) has advised the Zambia Environmental Management Agency (ZEMA) to engage the Zambia Bureau of Standards (ZABS) and the Local Authorities in the country to help them enforce the SI 65 of 2018.
CESCo Executive Director Conwell Hakapya tells Money FM News that this is because the SI seems to only being adhered to by the big chain stores while the small and medium enterprises are busy distributing the banned single use plastic bags with impunity.
“You might wish to know that the big chain stores accounts for way less than half the amount of single use plastic bags discarded in the environment, because the majority are distributed by the small and medium enterprises,” he said.
“So, if all concentration in enforcing this SI is just centered on the big chain stores the SI might just end up being an academic exercise and not yield the much-needed results, because whereas the Big chain stores are less than one hundred stores country wide, the small and medium enterprises are in thousands which makes it very difficult to quantify how much single use plastic bags they distribute every minute in this Country.”
Mr. Hakapya says ZEMA must seriously make sure that the local manufacturers and importers comply with minimum of 30 microns of thickness in all their plastic product packaging that are offloaded on the Zambian market.
“Because as we are not ready to out- rightly ban single use plastic bags in this country and we have opted to go for the partial ban of less than 30 microns of thickness, we must be ready, willing and able to enforce, monitor and regulate the ban effectively,” said Mr. Hakapya.
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