Plastic Bottles Stay!

Cameroon has a plan to speed up the ban on plastic bags, but it doesn’t involve plastic containers. The ambitious project to prohibit the use of plastic bags will drive thousands out of employment, sending back delinquent youths who had been weaned from street crime. 70% percent of Douala companies that manufacture all kinds of plastics will go also out of business while plastics manufacturing machines would become redundant.

By Anu Paul & Regina Fonjia Leke

Plastic bags may be going out of circulation on April 24, 2014 as announced by the Ministry of Environment, Nature Protection and Sustainable Development (MINEPDED), but their cousins like bottles, carpets, computers, utensils, cable casings and others. Kicking the old habit will be tricky, and most of the plastic bottles and their cousins will still find their way to landfills, farms, bushes and forests as well as waterways that eventually lead to the ocean.

Are plastics are forever, then?

“All companies producing and importing plastic bottles packaging will need to work with an environmental permit holder who will be in charge of collecting, transporting and disposing all plastic bottles or eliminating them by recycling them after usage by the population,” said Enoh Peter Ayuk, the Director of Norms and Control at MINEPDED.

The Director told The Green Vision, in his office in Yaounde, April 11, 2014 that plastic bottles produced locally and internationally will continue to be sold and used after the April 24 deadline ban on plastic bags.

He said out of the 40% of plastic bottles in circulation, by the end of their lifespan 30% must have been eliminated. As concerns imported plastic bottle packaging, they will continue to come in but under a management to ensure their elimination from the environment after usage.

Banning the use of plastic bags would require substitutes which are not yet in sight. Enoh Ayuk, however, says the 18 months grace period was enough time to provide for substitutes at all levels.

“We have papers, fiber tissues, jute bags, raffia, baskets and varieties of local substitutes which can be very useful in packaging. The population should accept these substitutes for the sake of our environment. The ban of plastics bags is real, so we all can start getting used to the alternatives,” says Enoh Ayuk.

He adds that MINEPDED gave enough time for everyone to adjust, so there is no reason for anyone to complain or give excuses.

“Congo gave six months for the elimination of plastic bags but Cameroon gave 18 months to all stakeholders to adjust because of social, economic, cultural and technological implications involved in the process,” Enoh Ayuk argues.

He says the physical nuisance of plastics bags and the health related problems are so huge and urgent as to overcome the problems posed by environmental toxic wastes caused by human activities.

“A plastic bag takes a very long time to decay and disappear from the environment and takes quiet a lot of useful space. This makes it very challenging with the biggest problem being the chemicals used in its production. This has many negative effects on humans, animals and agricultural activities,” says Enoh Ayuk.

According to the Director, plastics are considered the greatest enemy of the environment because of the time they take to bio-degrade, “others may be harmful but plastics are the worst comparatively. If we remove the plastics bags, our environment will become clean and healthy for biodiversity. The littering of plastics here and there will disappear totally and the environment will remain safe for the future generations.”

Lamentations Of Plastics Workers

Workers at two of the biggest plastics firms in Douala have lamented government’s decision to ban the production and circulation of plastic bags.

“Baya”, who works for PLASTICAM located in Bassa neighbourhood, said government is underestimating the effect of the ban.

“The plastic department is very large. Statistics have shown that 70% of companies here in Douala produce plastics in one way or the other; plastic wrappings, plastic plates, rain boots, sandals locally called “Dschang Shoe”, buckets, cups, disposable utensils…This means government is sending thousands of youths to the streets because they will have no jobs when their companies stop producing plastics,” Baya said.

In addition, the ban on plastics will dispossess thousands of young boys who used to perpetrate crime on the streets of Douala.

“What happens to these people when the ban becomes effective?” Baya asked.

He equally hinted The Green Vision that since the beginning of this year when talk about banning plastics became heated, some companies involved in the sector removed their signposts pretending to have closed down, but now they produce secretly and, according to him, this is dangerous for the economy.

Another employee in the same company said, “We have a huge stock of all the different kinds of plastics amounting to millions. We must sell all this stock before the deadline. We have big clients like CDC that come and get huge quantities of plastic packaging for their bananas before exporting them. We equally export plastic bags to neighbouring Chad, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea. What will become of all our customers when this ban commences?”

The employee further said the fate of over 400 workers employed by PLASTICAM hangs in the balance.

“There are over 400 workers who put food on their tables by working at this factory. Even though I hear that our Director with other Directors of plastic firms have been meeting with Minister Hele Pierre to see how we can switch to the production of biodegradable bags, I doubt how realistic that is given that we are just a few days to the deadline and we have no materials for the production of biodegradable bags. We also fear the machines we use to produce the plastics may not be suitable for the production of biodegradable bags. This means some machines worth millions will become redundant,” lamented the employee.

Despite this rather dire scenario, some workers remain hopeful.

“I believe everything will be fine. It is just a matter of time. As we speak, the Director of PLASTICAM is in Yaounde discussing with the Minister. I believe very soon we will be able to produce biodegradable bags and our environment will be kept clean while workers will not go unemployed,” said Edo Donald.

The Green Vision did not succeed to talk to Director in charge of Plastics who said he could only talk to the press with the permission of his Director who was absent.

The Green Vision also drew a blank at the OK Plast Cameroon company.

The workers said they could not react to the ban on plastics because they needed permission from their Director who was also in Yaounde discussing with Minister Hele Pierre on how to tackle the ban without causing a huge market failure.

OK Plast from what The Green Vision gathered is a conglomerate of companies most of whose products use plastics, for example; OK Foods which produces popular biscuits such as Parle G and Rio all packaged in plastic papers. Meanwhile, soft drinks companies like Source du Pays which uses approximately 1.5 million plastic bottles daily to package its drinks will continue to ‘dump’ plastics into the environment.