Ban on plastic packaging

 Another classic case of passing the buck
When the joint ministerial order signed in October 2012 by the Minister of Environment and Nature Protection and the Minister of Commerce came into effect in April 2014, it was heralded as proof of the government’s commitment to protecting the environment. The order announced government’s decision to regulate the manufacture, importation and commercialization of some non-biodegradable substances - plastic, glass and metal packaging materials. Henceforth, manufacturers, importers and distributors of non-biodegradable packaging materials shall inter alia;
- Be responsible for their waste management;
- Put in place measures aimed at limiting their production while encouraging recycling and reuse as well as other methods of making use of the their waste;
- Their activity shall be subject to first obtaining an environmental permit so as to track down the recovery, recycling or destruction (in an ecologically friendly manner) of their products;

- Ensure that all information concerning the thickness, composition, bio-degradability or not of the product, the name and the precise address of the manufacturer or importer appear clearly on the plastic bags in accordance with the laws in force;
-Submit every trimester to the Ministry of Environment and Nature Protection, a report on the workings of their waste management plan.
The order further forbids the manufacture, importation, possession, sale or free distribution of non-biodegradable plastics with a density equal or less than 60 microns (1 micron being equal to 1/1000 mm).
    Henceforth, it is strictly forbidden to burn plastics in open air, dispose of them in nature or bury them.
     The government is ostensibly getting serious about protecting the environment. Some serious questions need to be addressed however: How practical is the proposal that a manufacturer based in India, with several importers and distributors could be made responsible for the disposal of their product in Cameroon? How does a distributor or wholesaler in Cameroon whose plastic bags are used all over the country - including very inaccessible places - ensure that they are properly disposed of? When plastics are burnt how do you tell whose plastics they were? How can anyone tell if plastics have been buried anywhere?  How can anyone in possession of plastic bags tell if they are over 60 microns or not? When plastic bags with no name are found on the street who takes responsibility?
    Even when plastics are non-biodegradable, they are nonetheless degradable; hence after a while it would be impossible to tell if plastics discarded in nature belonged to X or Y manufacturer or distributor because all vital information would either have rubbed off or the bag would be so defaced as not to have the required information. Beyond the obvious difficulties in implementing such legislation, the joint ministerial order should be seen for what it really is: just one more case of shifting responsibility.
Unfortunately, buck-passing is a pattern we are getting accustomed to. This is the same government whose chief executive in his post-election policy speech in 2011 blamed road accidents squarely on reckless drivers, failing to acknowledge the fact that there are no roads worthy of the name to begin with; that there is a shortage of speed limits and other road signs on the ones that exist; that our so-called highways are hardly ever maintained; that old uninsured vehicles that are simply not road-worthy suffer breakdowns and clutter our very narrow  single-lane highways; and that the gendarmerie and police which should enforce road safety rules are ill-equipped, inefficient and corrupt.  Blaming road accidents on reckless drivers, just like placing a ban on certain packaging materials because they constitute an environmental hazard if poorly disposed of, and making manufacturers and distributors responsible for ensuring that their product is properly handled may be the sort of convenient misdiagnosis of the problem which seemingly lets the government off the hook, but is one which unfortunately does not begin to address the issue at hand. The real question is - when will this government begin to take responsibility and by so-doing, begin to fulfill its social contract?
    Plastics, metals and glass like other non-biodegradable substances (such as rubber tires, Styrofoam, fibreglass, silver foil, and synthetic fibres) if not properly disposed of, constitute an environmental hazard without a doubt. This is because unlike bio-degradable substances (paper, wood, leaves, cotton, fruits and vegetables, human waste, manure, etc.) which can be broken down (in a reasonable amount of time) by air, moisture, soil or micro-organisms into non-poisonous or harmless substances in nature (otherwise known as base compounds), non-biodegradable substances remain stable indefinitely. In other words, this is waste that will never break down into part of the earth. The best option for managing waste resulting from such substances is recycling, not prohibiting their use. And that responsibility falls squarely on government – all three branches and three tiers working in synergy, with local government – municipalities – being the principal enforcers.
    The importance of plastic, glass or metal packaging cannot be over-emphasized. The modern economy is inseparable from plastics and other non-biodegradable substances. Plastics and plastic poly bags especially are ubiquitous in our daily lives. We depend on plastic bags for groceries and other shopping. We need poly bags for carrying and packaging various daily-use items. We require plastics to meet the covering and protection needs of several items from furniture to electronics. Industries such as automobile (covering of car furniture), chemical (toxic substances and poisons), pharmaceutical (medication, cosmetics), garment and textile (T-shirt bags, dry-cleaning), service (restaurants), retail (check-out bags), agro-industries (polythene bags used in nurseries), bio-medical (plastic gloves, waste collection), etc., all depend heavily on plastics. At home we need plastic bags for storage in freezers, for covering food in micro-wave ovens and for garbage collection.
    To substitute for plastics, the government has suggested the use of paper bags and leaves (ngongo-leaf) in particular. It is doubtful if paper bags and leaves will be able to replace plastic bags in preserving perishable foods (fruits, grains, vegetables, fresh and freeze-dried meats) over long periods of time, offer the same kind of protection from the elements or from rodents and other pests, or offer the same packaging possibilities like plastics or metal for pastries like cookies and cakes. Plastic and metal packaging is indispensible for buying cooked food from fast-food to roadside restaurants, including foods like beans, beignet and pap. It is uncertain if paper and leaves will be able to replace plastics in this regard. As for liquids and liquid-based substances that come in sachets such as pure water, bleach and other disinfectants, juices, liquors and our much-cherished home-grown spirits (Gold Bond, Fighter, Lion D’or, Kitoko) there is no doubt paper and leaves will never serve as alternatives for plastic packaging.
    The solution to the problem of improper waste disposal – whether for those packaging materials referenced in the ministerial order, or others – lies in government putting in place a uniform waste disposal code to be effectively enforced by all municipal councils across the country, with the backing of the forces of law and order. Waste collection and disposal until now has been outsourced to private profit-making companies like Hysacam which operate only in the big cities, the smaller municipalities left to dabble on their own as best they can. Proper waste management begins with making provision for refuse collection bins and ensuring that people use them. There is no such thing as a ‘Cameroonian mentality’ problem, that weak argument often advanced (by public officials no less) to justify failure to use dumpsters and other forms of indiscipline. The real problem is absence of government. For, as Alexis de Tocqueville puts it simply, “it is the role of government to direct the thoughts and actions of the people, through the threat and through the ultimate use of force”. Cameroonians who take delight in littering their towns and cities and relieving themselves on street corners find they cannot do the same in better-organized towns whether in other African countries or in Europe. The reason is the fear of the law, not a sudden improvement in their ‘mentality’.
     Any successful environmental policy must also aim at making waste recycling worthwhile, even profitable. Government can actually encourage civic pride and civic responsibility by rewarding the cleanest towns. In other places groups and social clubs are encouraged to adopt highways and waterways, keeping them free of debris by picking up solid waste which is then recycled. There is a major lesson to be learnt from the recovery and recycling of waste iron and steel in the country today. Since private companies like Fokou began recycling iron and steel, our streets have been swept clean of old metal objects by people scavenging for a profit. Such waste is then weighed and sold to the iron smelting plants. Gone are the days when old broken-down vehicles were parked in people’s yards as a reminder that they were once car owners. These eyesores and environmental hazards have been profitably disposed of, no thanks to government. It behoves this government to entice foreign companies with much-needed expertise in managing waste from plastic, glass and metal packaging materials to invest in Cameroon, or for government to set up such plants herself if the profit margins envisaged are not good enough to lure foreign investors. This government has been known to spend much more on much less worthy ventures.
    Around the world new technology is being applied in waste management with mutually beneficial results. Companies like India’s Reverte  now provide a technologically safe way to degrade plastics by rendering them oxo-biodegradable (a hybrid of two words – oxidation and biodegradability) which is a process initiated by an additive which degrades the polymer chain (break up) and makes it available for biodegradability within the environment. For an energy-challenged economy like ours, we could also benefit from technology that converts non-biodegradable waste into electricity. Bioplant pyrolysis converts 20 tons of Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) per day into biodiesel. The bio-diesel is then used as a fuel in a steam boiler to drive a micro turbine. The turbine produces 1.5 MW of electricity per day.
    Our economy shall continue to depend on plastic, metal and glass packaging today and tomorrow. Their consumption in the developed world is several thousand tons per day, but thanks to better-developed waste management, they do not pose as much of an environmental problem in these countries as in Cameroon. The new law shall not address the problem. Only responsible government can protect our environment; after all good governance is also about transforming challenges into opportunity.