Plastic Bags Laws:
Environmental Conservation and Heritage Revival

Razan Abakar (Sudan)

Honorable Mention

Last year the Council of Ministers of Khartoum state issued a law to stop manufacturing plastic bags below thickness of (60 microns) in order to beat plastic pollution. Light bags represent 60% of the waste, indicating the well-known health and environmental damage to humans, animals and agriculture of such wastes.
I fully understand the law banning light plastic bags and I think it would be a great decision if there was an alternative recourses, but in this case it’s totally impractical because they didn’t provide any alternatives.
plastic bags plays a huge role in our life and there is a lot of things that must be done before enforcement that law, such as manufacturing of thick plastic bags for repeated use to sell in the store for the customer to maintain and use them more than once and thus fewer bags used, and encouraging organic plastic industry, also, raising citizens' awareness of the need to preserve  the environment and enact laws that penalize those who contribute to environmental degradation,  but none of these simple procedures has been taken. And I should never forget the layoff of 15,000 workers because of the closure of 104 plastic bags factories in Khartoum.
Earlier this year, plastic bags were stopped and replaced with expensive paper bags. The customers found themselves at a loss, not all citizens will buy paper bags, but most of them use their hand to carry out their stuffs and the biggest problem is carrying the bread, the hands will not be clean enough to carry it.
The law of banning, regardless of its positive and negative aspects, was the key for me to deep dive within Sudanese Cultures, and since my Mother decided to buy a “Guffa”. Which I know about it, it was the gate for me to explore many other products I never heard before, in order to use them for carrying our stuffs.
Guffa (straw bags) are woven from palm leaves or dom tree leaves in different sizes and shapes. Some of them are ornamented with colorful substances, while others carry the natural tree leaves grayish color. As a matter of fact the citizens had used to use Guffa for shopping before these plastic bags were introduced. These Gufaf (singular guffa) are considered quite healthy because they are made from local environment-friendly substances. And it have become part of the Sudanese heritage.
Also, there is “Khortaya” which it’s a kind of canvas bag made from cotton fabric, after washing it is used to carry meat, vegetables, sugar, salt and other things, and it’s also eco-friendly product. Citizen also used to carrying their shopping in Jute, leather, cloth, straw or sugar bags.
However, the Guffa and Khortaya had been put aside for some time, replaced with plastic bags. And after the ban strongly opened the doors for the return of them to their previous glory, replacing the plastic bags. Of course I saw some of these crafts in my grandparent’s house as a kind of tradition, but I never thought I would use them for my own benefits. I really felt awkward when I first hold the Guffa in my way to the store but people encouraged me and said it is amazing idea and it must be applied by everyone.
Plastic bags are not the only problem, there is also plastic bottles and plastic food trays, for sure people in the past made alternatives to these things like “Qerba” which it’s made from leather and “Zeer” traditional pot made of pottery, both Qerba and Zeer conserve water. And “Alsien” made from goat leather to conserve butter, milk and honey and other kinds of food. Using these things in our time may be impractical but there is youth initiatives focusing in reuse them in an appropriate manner.
So great thanks to our ancestors, with their precious thoughts they saved us the earth and represent us a proper solutions for the 21st century issues with a zero plastic life. Naturally we can't totally dispense with plastic, especially when it comes Nuclear containers, it has a great utility. However, the use of plastic should be reduced at the individual level, and now the turn to our governments they must start investing in re-energizing this heritage to suit the requirements of this century, and include the 15,000 worker ‘who lost their jobs because of the banning’ in the crafting of Guffa and Khortaya and since these two needs trees and cotton, this must also encourage agriculture and draw the government's attention to revitalizing the Gezira Scheme for cotton cultivation.

Pictures of Guffa and Alsien