Plastic Bag Ban: NEMA Exempts Industrial Packaged And Domestic Waste Bags

The National Environmental Management Authority has made a few exemptions to the plastic bag ban.

In a notice to the public via its website, NEMA exempted plastic bags used for primary industrial packaging and domestic/biomedical hazardous waste from the plastic bag ban.

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It described the primary industrial packaging plastic bags as those used consumer products such as sugar, bread, milk, and salt or any other product that is packaged at source.

“These bags must be clearly labeled (printed) the name of the industry manufacturing the product and the end-user,” reads the notice.

The notice further instructs all manufacturers, importer, and users of plastic bags used for industrial packaging to apply for a clearance letter to continue making or importing the plastic bags.

“The applicants shall demonstrate to the satisfaction of the Authority, an effective Take Back Schemes (TBS) and/or Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR).”

NEMA has published the exemption days before the ban which takes effect on August 28.

Kenya has almost 200 plastic manufacturing companies in the country which account for 3.4 percent of all the manufacturers combined. The estimated cost value of the sector is at KSh88 billion.

The Kenya Association of Manufacturers has petitioned President Uhuru Kenyatta to lift the ban arguing that it will have dangerous consequences on the economy.

The Association’s CEO Phyllis Wakaiga said if the ban takes effect, the country will lose KSh5.2 billion in taxes. It will also affect over 600,000 jobs in a country facing unemployment challenges.

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Kenya Association of Manufacturers is rather proposing the establishment of a ‘Waste Management Board Levy’ that is to be charged on all plastic at source. The government will this way gain KSh785 million.

They also want the country to adopt a waste management measure that will, in turn, create more jobs and revenue from processes such as waste collection, waste transportation, waste segregation and waste recycling.