NEWS ANALYSIS

Confusion over kaveera ban

,

By Ronald Musoke

On April 15 the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) started to enforce the ban on light weight
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against NEMA enforcing the ban. It said the government was lifting the ban immediately to allow for consultations.

n an unusual move, however, NEMA took to the airwaves to in-




by raiding the biggest supermarkets. There was confusion as
 -
ity, Shoprite and Uchumi, and seized tonnes of the lightweight
plastic shopping bags commonly referred to as kaveera. Was the


prime minister? Were their jobs safe?Many wondered if this time

time NEMA had said they were to implement the law on polythene
-

Menace: A drainage system in Kampala clogged with polythene bags.

14

another statement cancelling its April 14 position. It said, following

consultations,the government had decided to go ahead with the
ban while consultations continue.The statement said the ban applies
to the importation, local manufacture, sale or use of polythene car-
rier bags but would exclude polythene packaging materials for use
in agriculture, industries, medicine, research and science, sanitation,
construction, and exports. It also directed manufacturers and distrib-
utors to establish polythene collection centres across the country and
intensify public sensitisation on polythene waste management.

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rial for customers. Some improvised with boxes, others advised
shoppers to carry satchels, and enterprising business people intro-


INDEPENDENT/JIMMY SIYA

NEWS ANALYSIS
up and tasked with preparing a Cabinet

on kaveera. Throughout the next month of
May, shoppers appeared to accept that it
was the end of kaveera.

Confused government?

But as Ugandans waited for the min-

isterial policy statement, on June 18, Jim
Muhwezi, the minister of information and
national guidance released a new statement
saying the government had lifted the ban on
plastic bags.
Apparently the government had
acknowledged the controversy surround-
ing the implementation of the ban and

study the issue again. Interestingly, the next

day, on June 19, another statement from his

NEMA issued their own statement the

same day, saying the ban on plastic carrier
bags is still in force
So why does the government keep issu-
ing these confusing statements to the pub-
lic? And who exactly is responsible for the
policy confusion?


It was later enshrined in the Finance Act


Bags and Other Plastics for Exceptional Use)

NEMA had failed to implement it.
Part of the problem is that the govern-
ment is caught in between two very power-
ful constituencies, the environmentalists
and the manufacturers. The manufacturers,
recyclers, and traders who have been using
consultative meetings to lobby the govern-
ment to lift the ban say they have invested

ready to see their investments go to waste.

They also cite job losses to thousands of
employees. But the environmentalists insist
the economic, health and social costs far


distinguishing plastic bags of 30 microns
from those above 30 microns.
Technically, a micron is a unit of length
that equals one millionth of a metre accord-
ing to the International Bureau of Weights
and Measures. In laymans language,
however, 30 microns is about as thick as
two human hairs. In other words, very thin
kaveera.
The problem, therefore, is not that bags of
-
guish. Rather the problem is that the law is

Shamim Nabatanzi, an administrator

at the Uganda Plastic Manufacturers and
Recyclers Association (UPMRA) told The
Independent

Ugandan towns of Kampala, Mukono, Jinja,

Wakiso and Mbarara. She says, however,

UPMRA has half that number registered as

Presumably then, each of these is manu-

facturing the same ubiquitous black, white,
or yellow light weight shopping bags and
the even lighter transparent bags used in
packing at smaller shops. Most of these
bags are unmarked. Even if NEMA found
that some of them were above 30 microns,
it is virtually impossible to say which fac-
tory manufactures which. In other words,
NEMA cannot scrutinize each batch. That is
why it favours a blanket ban on polythene
shopping bags of below 30 microns.
But Nabatanzi says it is also wrong for
the government authorities to focus on local
manufacturers when up to 80% of poly-
thene shopping bags used in the country is
imported from Kenya.
Like it or not, kaveera is a hot cake (and)
even if our members are clamped down,
there are many others producing kaveera
underground in homes and remember

Ruhakana Rugunda

Jim Muhwezi

80% of the kaveera comes from outside

Uganda through smuggling, she says.
Since it started in mid-April this year,
critics of NEMA say it rushed into taking
action following the refusal by Parliaments


provisions of the July 2009 Finance Act that

prohibited the manufacture or importation
and distribution of plastic bags below 30
microns.
Whatever the reason, Gerald Musoke
Sawula, the NEMA deputy executive direc-
tor told The Independenton June 22 that
NEMA would not relent on the polythene
bag ban. But he quickly added that the ban
would only work when manufacturers stop
producing and buyers stop buying.
Kaveera has been with Uganda for the
last 25 years and therefore, implementing

take years.
Beatrice Anywar Atim, the shadow minis-
ter for water and environment and a mem-

in Parliament supports NEMA. She told

The Independenton June 22 that the kaveera

manufacturers cannot keep asking for time
because they have nothing to show from the
grace period they got last time. They have
done nothing, she says, Its just greed.
Anywar says the kaveera ban has since
2009 been frustrated by some cabinet minis-

Dr. Francis Epetait, the MP for Ngora

-
culture, Animal Industry and Fisheries told
The Independent that many Ugandans are
-
ing food cooked in kaveera. He said kaveera
releases cancer-causing substances into the
food.
It is annoying and frustrating to see the

he said, Those lifting the ban on kaveera,

deep in their mind know that kaveera is

clogging the drainage system. In the rural

areas, people are misusing kaveera.
In addition, when kaveera is burnt in the
open, especially under low temperatures,
it creates dioxin-like poisonous materials
which cause cancer, skin diseases, endocri-
-
sion and human fertility. He said NEMA
needs to be given credit and support instead
of being frustrated by the government.
On the issue of people losing jobs because
of the ban, Epetait says people should not
get jobs at the expense of other peoples
health. What percentage of recycling is
going on compared to the volumes being
put out in the environment?
Asked about what she thinks about the
ban on kaveera by NEMA, Nabatanzi says
the only problem UPMRA has with NEMA
is that they do not come out clearly to say
the gauge of the kaveera that they have
banned.
We also agree that it is dangerous to the
environment but it is also important to man-
age it, she says, adding that she is not sure
if the manufacturers increased the gauge of
the kaveera to even 100 microns that would
-
tion for kaveera.
The money NEMA has used to enforce
the ban could have been used to sensitize

users who do so.

Ugandans need to be educated on how

how to sort the waste. If kaveera was, for

instance, being sorted well and stockpiled,
our companies would buy this assorted
kaveera at competitive prices, she said.
Nabatanzi says, of the 30 registered poly-
thene manufacturers, 20 have recycling sec-
tions manufacturing products such as plas-
tic pipes, plastic tanks, plastic sandals and
plastic bins. These, she says, recycle over
15million kilogrammes of kaveera every
month but that is because they are operat-
July 03 - 09, 2015

15

NEWS ANALYSIS

invested close to Shs 77 billion ($25m) over

over 3000 workers although at the moment

some of the workers have been sent away
because of the current ban. Nabatanzi says
if the ban goes ahead and UPMRA mem-
bers go out of business, then the govern-

with the manufacturers.

The government will have to compen-
sate the manufacturers because it is the
government which told them to come and
invest here.

Kaveera the hot cake

Information on how much kaveera is

produced, used and dumped in Ugandan
environment is scanty but according to
NEMA, close to 40 million kilogrammes
of polythene bag waste is released into the
environment and most of it accumulates in
the soil each year within the country.
On the other hand, UPMRA say they are
still compiling information regarding how
much kaveera is produced in the country
every year. But their estimates point to 80%
of lightweight polythene shopping bags
used in the country being imported from
Kenya. URA disagrees. James Kisale, a

The Independenton June 25 that it is wrong
for UPMRA to give the impression that
smuggling contributes the biggest percent-
age of kaveera in Uganda.
He, for instance, says in the whole of
2014, URA impounded about 14,000 kilo-
grammes of kaveera entering Uganda from
Kenya. He added that as far as this year
is concerned, URA has so far impounded

Kisale wondered if indeed Kenya was

contributing up to 80% of the available
kaveera in the country, then why would the
local manufacturers and recyclers be mak-
ing noise to ensure that the ban is lifted.

also insist manufacturers should consider
the millions of farming-related jobs that
thrive when the soils are not damaged by
kaveera.
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lines handling kaveera production hardly

employ a handful of workers. This, she says,
means that the recycling plants cannot go
out of business because of the ban since they
are engaged into producing other products
for the market.
Irene Ssekyana, the national coordinator
at Greenwatch, a local NGO that promotes
public participation in sustainable use and
management of the environment told The
Independent
have been promising the country since
2008 on a strategy that would ensure that
kaveera is well managed within the coun-
16

July 03 - 09, 2015

Alternatives: NEMA wants Ugandans to embrace durable shopping bags to save

the environment which is choking on kaveera. COURTESY PHOTO
try. They promised to set up collecting
centres where kaveera users would dump
their plastic waste and make it easier for
recyclers to pick it. They brought in machin-
ery to engage in recycling but also they have
continued manufacturing the banned gauge
of polythene carrier bags, she said.
Ssekyana says this is just a ploy to buy
public sympathy, adding that the lobby-

interests.
In 2002, Greenwatch brought a case
before the High Court in Kampala arguing
that the rampant and uncontrolled use of
polythene bags poses a danger to Ugandas
environment and therefore violates the
rights of Ugandans to a clean and healthy
environment.
Greenwatch sought a court injunction
directing the government to restore the
environment to the state it was in before
plastic pollution. Greenwatch also sought
an order directing the importers, manufac-
turers, distributors of plastics to pay for the
costs of the environmental restoration.
A decade later, the High Court ruled that
indeed plastic bags are a danger to Ugan-
dans and therefore the government needs

urgency.
Going forward, Greenwatch has formed
a loose platform of about 10 environmental
 -
tation of the ban. She says civil society agen-
cies are going to rally the public to ensure
that the ban is implemented.
NEMA needs a lot of support at the
moment because although they are trying
their best, they are also being pulled and
torn from all sorts of directions.
We commend NEMA with the way they
have taken on the issue. We shall support

them all the way and we shall see the best

way to engage the citizens and take the

other option is suing the manufacturers or
supermarkets that continue defying the ban.
We will identify one and sue them as an
example to the rest, she said.
She added that if investors want to
blackmail the government using jobs and
investment, they can go ahead and do so
but Uganda is not going to have investors
coming here to destroy the environment
and refuse to replenish it.
Meanwhile Anywar says she also intends
to mobilize Ugandans just like she did dur-
ing the Mabira Campaign in 2007 to shun
supermarkets that will continue using
kaveera.

Way forward

According to the Washington-based

Earth Policy Institute, around the world,
about one trillion single-use plastic bags
are distributed every year and as a result

waterways as well as choke animals, besides

blemishing the natural landscape.
Many countries have responded to the
kaveera menace by implementing bans or
fees. The Earth Policy Institute argues that
Denmarks 1993 plastic shopping bag policy
has probably been one of the most success-
ful around the world.
-
ers by asking them to pay a tax based on
the bags weight but stores were allowed
to pass the cost onto consumers either in
bag charges or absorbed into the prices of


usage in the country.