Tunisia has announced plans to prevent supermarkets and pharmacies from using single-use plastic bags by next month. By 2021 the north African country will phase them out completely.
Plastic pollution is a major crisis in Tunisia. Infrastructural challenges and inadequacies have contributed to the issue. According to The Guardian, from 1 March, government will prevent major supermarkets and pharmacies from distributing single-use plastic bags and by January 2021, they will be banned completely.
The country’s land and marine ecosystems are fraught with plastic bags. Thrown out plastic bags are a common sight along roads. The bags are used to discard household waste to collection areas and are collected by municipal services.
Dr Wassim Chaabane, founder of the Association Tuniso-Méditerranéenne de l’Environnement, an environmental group told The Guardian that: ‘We have become addicted to single-use or disposable plastic, with severe environmental consequences. In Tunisia, more than 4.2bn single-use plastic bags are consumed, where 1.2bn bags are imported informally.’
In 2016 the government of Tunisa attempted to implement a ban and were met with resistance from the industry.
Read: An easy guide to recycling
Also read: Cape Town to phase out single-use plastic
Image: Unsplash
