Plastic Bag Was killing My Country.

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Finally came to terms with the fact that plastic bag was killing us slowly

On the 28th of August 2017, the government of Kenya announced the ban on plastic bags, this was after the United Nation environment Program raised its concerns about the amount of plastic that is found in the ocean endangering marine life and livestock raising fears of beef being contaminated with plastic.

I thought the ban won't work because we have tried and failed before

At first, I did't think the ban would work because Kenyans have been using plastic bags for decades, and the government has tried in the past to ban plastic bags with no success I thought it would be very difficult to get rid of plastic bags, but the fine of $38,000 or a 4-year jail term gave encouragement to the people to comply with the ban, and so as I visited my home town just recently after being out of country for the last 4 years,

I could not beleive my eyes within just over two years of the plastic bag ban being in place, the difference is visible, the places where there used to be piles upon piles of rubbish which most was plastic, now its clean, looks much better, the streets of my small town, also look very tidy.

so this made me curious and I visited other towns to see how the plastic bag ban has impacted the environment in a good way and sure enough all the towns I visited were very different compared to the last time I saw them, the streets don't have the usual plastic bags flying everywhere when its windy.

its amazing how in such a short time, the ban on plastic bags has made a difference, now the Kenyan government is working on eradicating the plastic bottles, because the plastic bottle is still a big problem, even though the clean up of plastic bag is not complete because there are still places where the piles of waste plastic needs to be taken away from years upon years of using plastic bags.

I have to say I am very proud of the progress that plastic bag ban has made, but a lot still needs to be done, because plastic is destroying our planet, I hope we can find alternative means, because we can not continue polluting our planet this way.

There are many other African countries that have banned the use of plastic bags Rwanda for example has been without plastic bags for a few years now and Kigali which is the capital city of Rwanda, is one of the cleanest cities in Africa, I have visited Kigali and I was very impressed by how clean the city was.

I honestly didn't realize just how bad the situation of plastic bags was until I watched a documentary on one of the news TV stations and it was just horrible, I am glad that now we are getting serious about controlling the plastic.

when visiting Kenya, make sure to leave all plastic bags at the Airport

So if you are planing to visit Kenya or any other country with a plastic bag ban, I suggest you drop all your plastic bags at the airport, they hav a bin where you can drop your plastic bags including the ones you get from the duty free shops, because if you are caught with plastic bag, you will be in trouble.

Thank you fo reading this and I hope you are doing your part in protecting our enviroment.

Thank you for your time

Rose.

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Recent Comments

10

This is the best news I have heard/read today. I am so tired of seeing plastic bags hanging from trees, coasting across the city streets and highways. Plastic water and other beverage bottles creeping down the neighborhood or in my front yard. No, I am not in Kenya but here in the united States there is definitely a plastic problem. There's even more in Hollyweird, California. lol.

I trust other countries will take the hint. Too much is just too much.

Thanks for posting Ropesa.
Your post gives hope.

Wow! I didn't expect you to say you are in the US.

I love this post Ropesa! I read a couple of years ago about how artists and clothing designers in Africa were making clothing out of trash as a political statement to clean up the environment. Their creations were just beautiful as were the models who modeled them. I'm going to have to try to find that again. It was such a visual and emotional delight. I am very impressed with the way developing countries handle these situations. It just doesn't happen here. We are so spoiled because the government does everything for us, including picking up our trash. In many ways it seems developing countries are more concerned about the health and welfare of their people than our own government here in the USA. For example, an internet friend from India reported that the World Health Organization warned that milk sold commercially there was poisoned by the processing methods used to make it available to the public. Here in the USA money is God so we don't get those kinds of loving messages from our government; not these days. We do, however get them from concerned citizens.
So far the only reasons I see that you may not be getting the attention you deserve is because you are not networking enough and everyone has their nose to the grindstone and aren't paying attention to anyone else. These are just my perceptions based on my observations. Oh, also, you don't have your websites and social media listed in the right bottom hand corner of your profile page Ropesa. Is there a reason for that?

Great post!
Plastic bags kill the environment,
damage the ocean, kill fish.
It will be necessary to find a way out of this calamity!

Ingrid

Looks like Kenya has found the solutionn Ingrid. I also saw some country, (was it Vietnam?) where the government was processing other countries trash and packing plastic into platic bottles and then using them in building homes and once I saw this man from China or Japan; I think it was Japan; invented a machine that turned trash back into petroleum based fuel. I have seen a lot of video in the last year or so that points out that the Japanese culture is focused on something called mindfulness which, to my understanding, is the awareness and consideration of the feelings and needs of others and an awareness of how we affect others. Very interesting.

Thanks for your answer full of hope.
Fortunately there are people who are
quite aware of the danger we all face,
to find ingenious solutions.

The issue of plastic bags is a big issue in Africa and some countries have been firm in their resolve to stop their usage and disposal, while other have tried but failed.
Here in Uganda our campaigns to stop their use is on and it starts with us as individuals.
Thank you for creating awareness

Hope you enjoyed your stay in Kenya got a chance to travel far and wide.

A very inspiring and well written post. In Australia we had cloth bags introduced some years ago. Plastic bags are out and cloth is in and if you forget your bags the store will sell you some more but they are no longer free and most stores no longer have plastic bags.
There was a television series called war on waste which was quite an eye opener.
I am so pleased they have acted to clean up Kenya. it makes a huge difference to see a rubbish free environment.

Great post. They are also raising awareness in the United States Of America too about the epidemic on plastic products. They never break down naturally and it is killing a lot of life. They may turn to the use of the waxworm for solutions. The waxworm has been known to eat through plastic bags and break the unnatural plastic compounds down into compostable fertilizer. It is, however, still an experiment.

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