Despite government ban:

Non-biodegradable plastics still inundate NW markets 

-Current socio-political environment identified as a contributing factor

By Njodzefe Nestor in Bamenda

It is Saturday Morning at the Bamenda Food Market and one of those days that the market receives the highest number of customers since it is the day most households do shopping for their households.

                Mami Margaret who sells foodstuffs receives her first customer for the morning and nicely packages her customer’s goods in a non biodegradable plastic bag.

                This scenario plays in almost all markets in Bamenda as many vendors use non biodegradable plastics to package goods of customers even when Cameroon through the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development outlawed the use of biodegradable plastics measuring less than 60 microns (two-thousandths of an inch) in 2014.

                Cameroon is one of over 20 African countries that has outlawed plastic bags in some way, but the effort to get rid of the bags has been foiled by smugglers who sneak the bags into Cameroon, hidden in legal shipments or hauled across the border on footpaths from neighboring countries especially Nigeria.

                The present socio-economic environment in the region has equally made it difficult for authorities of the NW Regional Delegations of Environment and Sustainable Development and that of Trade to send their workers to the field for inspection.

                The ban was meant to preserve the environment. According to a 2014 report from the environment ministry, plastic goods make up 10 percent of the 6 million tons of municipal waste generated in Cameroon each year.

                The problem is a global one with a trillion single-use plastic bags are used every year, according to 2014 statistics from the Earth Policy Institute, which closed its doors in June.

Plastic bags and other waste has blocked drainage systems contributing to seasonal floods in east and West Africa, according to a the Global Waste Management Outlook 2015 from the U.N. Environmental Programme.

                They are also a risk to domestic animals, the report says, who can suffer health problems after eating plastic bags.

Since the ban took effect in April 2014, the Ministry of Environment, Protection of Nature and Sustainable Development and the police have seized and burnt more than 30 tons of non biodegradable bags confiscated from importers and retailers in the Northwest region alone, according to the ministry's regional delegate for the Northwest region.

                Despite the ban on the bags and warnings, some traders continue to use - and sell - plastic bags. Vivian, who asked that her full name not be used, owns a provisions store in Bamenda. She says she sells only to people she knows.

"You will never know who is working with the delegation of environment to bring us to book," she says.

                Vivian says she buys bags from wholesalers who smuggle them from Nigeria. She buys 12 packs of bags at a time for about 1,800 francs and sells them for about 200 francs per pack. Each pack contains 12 small packs made up of 100 small plastic bags.

                Some traders say they're forced to use plastic bags because their customers refuse to buy unpackaged goods.

"If you don't have plastics to package your goods, customers will not buy from you," says Miriam Ngum, who sells carrots at the Bamenda food market. The plastic bags have become more expensive since the ban, but she says she has to buy them.