Polythene bags: The problem is not laws
It’s not the first time Minister Beatrice Atim Anywar has announced the ban on use of polythene bags (kaveera) below 30 microns.
Banned first in 2018, then January 2020 and the other day. On all occasions Ms Anywar was fought by politicians and rogue businessmen.
According to a United Nations report, more than one million polythene bags are consumed worldwide every minute. That’s an attractive number for a businessman but an alarming figure for an environmentalist.
We cannot deny the fact that the battle between proponents and opponents of polythene has been on ever since Bangladesh became the first nation to ban the use of thin polythene bags in 2002.
The battle has grown ferocious, year after year, but unfortunately, even after the passage of more than 19 years, the world is yet to decide whether to vote for or against the indiscriminate use of polythene.
For now, in this battle between wealth and sustainability of life, the former has emerged victorious.
Alas, man is the only creature on this earth that can compromise its very existence just for the sake of personal convenience.
That does not discourage a few eccentric earth warriors who are always on the job to find new ways to get rid of this polythene menace.
Their continuous efforts have forced the governments to pass strict law to curb and control the use of polythene.
In fact, the United Nations had been obliged to declare “Beat Plastic Pollution” as the main theme for “World Environment Day, 2018”. Uganda has also not lagged behind anywhere as far as the legislation for control of polythene is considered. We have some of the strictest laws that impose heavy penalties on the unscientific production, usage and disposal of polythene bags. All said and done, we are still losing the battle.
There is a drastic need to remove the dark clouds of ignorance if we really wish to hand over a sustainable environment to our future generations. The problem does not lie with the laws, though time and again Uganda has failed miserably in implementing them. The problem lies in our inability to comprehend the magnitude of the herculean disaster that waits for us if we continue with our present ostrich approach.
In order to emerge victorious in this battle against the polythene usage, we need to make some hard commitments, take some harsh decisions and modify our lifestyles. First of all, we need to decide whether we truly love our children, our families, our neighbourhood or do we just pretend to do that. Because, if we truly care for these things, can we slow poison them? How can we be so ruthless to snatch the right to an ecosystem worth living from our dear ones? Polythene is killing the earth slowly. It is turning fertile fields into barren lands.
Secondly, it is time to decide between wealth and health. Wealth can be lost and earned but human life once gone is gone forever.
Next, we need to do away with this “disposable culture”, lest we are willing to dispose of our precious lives with it. The biggest problem of our contemporary generation is that we are becoming careless beings.
In a nut shell, we need a cultural shift if we are overcome this menace of polythene. We must understand that all we receive comes from this ecosystem and all we give goes back into this ecosystem only.
Phillip Kimumwe
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