to think Nigeria has the right idea on plastic bags

[DonkeyHohtay]

Proposal to ban them. Any retailer providing plastic bags faces up to 3 years in prison, £1000 fine, or both.

saharareporters.com/2019/05/24/vote-plastic-ban-nigeria-chinedu-asadu

None of this messing about with "oh please don't use plastic bags, we'll have to charge you 5p" nonsense. Outright ban. (assuming this applies to single use plastic bags, not the durable woven ones).

What a great idea.

Brilliant legislation.

Absolutely brilliant. Zero tolerance. We should all follow suit.

I agree. People would soon remember their reusable bags if there was a complete ban.

I think the proposed Nigerian law is that retailers may choose to provide paper bags instead. But no single use plastic bags.

Looking at this:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phase-out_of_lightweight_plastic_bags

Lots of countries have banned lightweight plastic bags already. Come on, if Afghanistan, China and Albania can do it, it's frankly pathetic that we haven't already.

Agree. There is absolutely no need for plastic bags to bring your shopping home. We are so bloody lazy that we can’t be arsed to bring a reusable no bag.

Prison for plastic bags? No thanks. That's ridiculous.

A total ban I'm happy with.

agreed!

I lived in Europe almost 20 years ago now, even then plastic bags were very much more discouraged than here. Several European countries use "fake" plastic bags made of biodegradable materials like cellulose - absolutely no reason why we couldn't do the same.

Ban them and use paper or other biodegradable materials instead and yes far better if people use reusable ones wherever possible.

I’m pretty sure Rwanda has a similar ban already in place - to the point that you can’t even bring them into the country in your suitcase - actually being in possession of a plastic bag is illegal. Absolutely brilliant piece of legislation. I wish this country would do something similar. (Mind you, I’m not sure I could cope with the victim-hood moaning from my MIL if it happened!)

Disclaimer - my knowledge on the Rwanda bam came from my DC doing a school project on Rwanda so I may well be remembering the finer details incorrectly.

No they don't have it right at all.

Prison for plastic bags? When there is so much violent crime happening?

In Nigeria most poor people reuse plastic bags (even single use ones). This legislation, as per usual with Nigeria, is something that will only penalize the poor while having minimal impact on the rich who run the country.

What the difference between this and black rubbish bags ?

I was coming on to say what Teddy said.

You have no idea how much recycling the poorest people in Nigeria do out of sheer necessity. Glass bottles filled with roasted peanuts (staple lunch), clean water in old glass Coca Cola bottles. This stuff is picked from tips and refuse heap of our rubbish, our e-rubbish still goes there by the tonne, other countries do the same.

The only people who will feel that bill will be the very poorest in Nigeria. Those who allow, encourage and profit from illegal waste disposal won't feel a thing.

But the Western world will read that headline and.... posts like this will appear!

This is common in many lower income countries. Never enforced in the countries I have visited though, so in reality it doesn't make much difference.

Anyone know why the hell Amazon have started using bloody plastic packaging?
They’ve used cardboard for as long as I can remember, now there’s a plastic backlash, they’ve switched to plastic!

Rwanda already has this law. I think it’s brilliant. Not prison necessarily, but certainly a severe fine.

Prison for plastic bags?

Joe Public isn't going to the slammer for having a plastic bag. Owning one won't be a crime. Using one won't be a crime.

Giving them out with purchases in a shop, or even charging customers for them in a shop will be a crime. Don't have a problem with that at all.

It would be an excellent idea if there was an outright ban in countries like this where getting carrier bags is basically laziness - when the charge started many people were determined not to buy carrier bags but now I notice people have got used to the charge and so are taking plastic carrier bags again.

I think it's penalising the poor in Nigeria. The ban there should be a fine on the shop keepers at most, not on the customers.

What about plastic bin liners? Are they going to be banned as well? If so, what are people supposed to use instead? And if they aren’t to be banned, why is it better to buy single use bin liners, rather than buy a carrier bag, use it as a carrier bag, and then reuse it as a bin liner?

Why the obsession with plastic carrier bags? What about virtually everything that comes wrapped in plastic? Is the plastic bag around your new electrical appliance any less harmful? What about plastic drinks bottles? What about convenience food in plastic containers? What about plastic wrappings around fruit and veg or even sandwich packs? I think it's the height of hypocracy when people are congratulating themselves about bringing their own reusable carrier bag and then filling it with food, drinks, magazines, greetings cards, etc all covered in plastic!

What about plastic bin liners? Are they going to be banned as well? If so, what are people supposed to use instead?

There were no such thing as plastic bin liners when I was growing up.

The rubbish went straight into metal dustbins.

@CaptainButtock I've been wondering the same thing, it's insane!

Amazon could do so much better on packaging in general. They should have a much smaller smallest-size box for really little things, and things quite often seem to be delivered in wildly oversized boxes.

It's true though that nothing much will change unless it's legislated

Why the obsession with plastic carrier bags? What about virtually everything that comes wrapped in plastic?

I agree with you, although plastic bags are such low-hanging fruit that it makes sense to start there.

I was remembering the other day that in supermarkets, there used to be paper bags for mushrooms in the veg section. I can't think why supermarkets don't bring those back, for all veg, instead of the plastic ones.